LEON  GORDON 


LEON   GORDON 


AN  APPRECIATION 


BY 


ABRAHAM   BENEDICT  RHINE 


PHILADELPHIA 

THE  JEWISH  PUBLICATION  SOCIETY  OF  AMERICA 
1910 


COPYRIGHT.  1910, 

BY 
THE  JEWISH  PUBLICATION  SOCIETY  or  AMERICA 


To 
My  Dear  Father 

MEYER    RHINE 

whose  scholarly  attainments  and  love  for  the 

Hebrew  language  and  literature  made  it 

possible  for  his  son  to  enjoy  and 

appreciate  poets  like 

LEON    GORDON 

this  first  attempt  at  authorship  is 
affectionately  dedicated 


PREFACE 

This  essay,  originally  written  in  1902  as  a  thesis 
for  the  Rabbinical  degree  of  the  Hebrew  Union 
College  of  Cincinnati,  is  an  attempt  to  introduce 
the  American  Jewish  public  to  the  Hebrew  litera- 
ture of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  study  of  this 
period,  which  constitutes  one  of  the  most  pathetic 
chapters  in  Jewish  history,  will  come  in  the  nature 
of  a  revelation  to  the  reader  to  whom  the  Hebrew 
language  is  a  terra  incognita.  It  will  unfold  to 
him  a  tale  of  the  struggle  between  the  old  order  of 
things  and  the  new,  between  medievalism  and 
modernity — a  story  of  the  longing  of  the  Jewish 
soul  for  emancipation.  He  will  meet  with  men  of 
power  and  of  genius,  above  all,  with  an  array  of 
heroes  whose  life  was  a  constant  battle  in  behalf 
of  enlightenment  and  civilization.  Incidentally,  a 
study  of  nineteenth  century  Hebrew  literature  can- 
not but  tend  to  raise  the  Russian  Jew  in  the  esti- 
mation of  his  American  brother,  and  bring  about 
a  clearer  understanding  between  them,  which  will 
inevitably  result  in  closer  fellowship  and  a  firmer 
tie  of  sympathy. 

7 


PREFACE 

A  part  of  this  essay,  comprising  Chapters  V  and 
VI,  was  published  in  "  The  Jewish  Quarterly  Re- 
view," April,  1906;  and  it  was  the  complimentary 
criticism  of  its  learned  editor,  Mr.  Israel  Abra- 
hams, that  encouraged  me  to  offer  the  essay  for 
publication  in  its  entirety. 

I  take  this  occasion  to  express  my  obligation  to 
Mr.  A.  S.  Freidus,  the  genial  librarian  of  the  Jew- 
ish Department  of  the  New  York  Public  Library, 
who  was  of  great  assistance  to  me  in  gathering  the 
material  for  this  essay,  and  helped  me  otherwise 
with  valuable  suggestions. 

A.  B.  RHINE. 

HOT  SPRINGS,  ARK.,  December  n,  1907. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION 1 1 

CHAPTER  I  19 

The  Pioneers  of  the  Haskalah 
CHAPTER  II  41 

Gordon  in  Lithuania 
CHAPTER  III   62 

Gordon  in  St.  Petersburg 
CHAPTER  IV   86 

Gordon  the  Man 
CHAPTER  V   103 

Gordon  the  Poet — Epic  Poems 
CHAPTER  VI   144 

Gordon  the  Poet — Lyric  Poems 

CONCLUSION    158 

NOTES    167 

BIBLIOGRAPHY    175 

INDEX 177 


INTRODUCTION 

The  struggle  of  the  human  mind  to  emancipate 
itself  from  the  fetters  of  credulity  and  superstition 
and  exercise  its  own  God-given  powers  of  pure 
thinking  and  unclouded  vision,  a  struggle  that  dates 
its  beginning  from  dimmest  antiquity,  when  man 
first  became  conscious  of  his  own  existence  and  that 
of  the  universe  about  him,  is  one  of  the  most 
absorbing  phenomena  within  the  wide  range  of 
human  experience. 

The  tremendous  difference  between  the  attitude 
of  the  European  of  to-day  towards  himself,  to- 
wards his  fellow-men,  and  towards  nature,  and 
the  attitude  assumed  by  the  Asiatic  of  antiquity, 
a  difference  commonly  summed  up  in  the  single 
word  Progress,  is  it  not  the  resultant  of  that  strug- 
gle without  which  the  change  would  have  been 
impossible?  Evolution  is  not  brought  about  by 
leaps;  development  is  gradual  and  slow.  Man  is 
loath  to  part  with  his  cherished  thoughts,  which 
thus  become  prejudices;  and  therein  lies  the  pathos 
of  the  history  of  human  achievement.  The  grand 
sum  total  of  human  knowledge,  which  pierces  the 

11 


LEON    GORDON 

heavens  and  fathoms  the  ocean,  was  accumulated 
by  the  laborious  effort  and  painful  exertion  of 
myriads  of  men  of  untold  generations;  and,  for 
the  most  part,  it  is  composed  of  their  very  heart 
and  life-blood.  Like  the  builders  of  the  Egyptian 
pyramids,  which  still  stand  and  bear  mute  testi- 
mony to  a  life  that  was,  the  builders  of  the  pyra- 
mids of  the  intellect  contributed,  by  their  incessant 
endeavor,  each  his  mite  towards  the  erection  of  the 
great  monument  of  the  intellect,  to  stand  for  all 
time.  Some  may  have  been  mere  hod-carriers, 
mere  day-laborers;  but  without  their  labor  the 
result  would  have  been  an  impossibility.  How 
grateful,  then,  ought  we  to  be  to  the  great  master- 
minds that  conceived,  planned,  and  executed  the 
pyramids  of  the  human  intellect!  Yet,  how  little 
do  we  think  of  the  price  they  paid  for  their 
achievements  1 

This  struggle  of  the  human  mind,  the  reluctance 
to  part  with  effete  beliefs,  and  the  promptings  of 
reason  that  they  must  be  done  away  with,  has  been 
going  on  among  the  Jewish  people  as  well  as  among 
other  nations.  Only  in  the  case  of  the  Jew  it  has 
been  keener,  more  accentuated,  hence,  more  tragic. 
Since  the  loss  of  his  national  independence  and  the 
beginning  of  the  Diaspora,  Israel  has  been  thrown 

12 


INTRODUCTION 

upon  his  intellectual  resources  for  his  existence. 
The  straightforward  means  of  earning  a  livelihood 
he  was  deprived  of  by  prejudice  and  persecution; 
other  and  subtler  means  had  to  be  found.  The  bar- 
riers had  to  be  circumvented.  Under  the  stress  of 
circumstances,  and  by  the  law  of  nature  which  de- 
velops, in  a  complex  organism,  the  peculiar  organ 
that  is  best  adapted  for  the  maintenance  of  life,  the 
intellectual  powers  of  the  Jew  were  strengthened 
above  those  of  his  neighbors.  But,  deprived  as  he 
was  of  intercourse  with  the  outside  world,  the  ac- 
tivity of  his  mind  displayed  itself  along  lines  in 
harmony  with  his  own  genius,  along  the  lines  of  his 
religion.  For  this  religion  it  was,  this  common 
Judaism,  that  held  the  scattered  remnant  of  Israel 
together.  Their  Law  was  their  common  inheri- 
tance. And,  since  the  active  force  of  their  intellect 
had  to  find  an  outlet — for,  in  the  words  of  Mane, 
"  the  human  spirit  knows  no  bounds  " — it  natu- 
rally coupled  itself  with  their  religion,  and  the  re- 
sult was  the  stupendous  literature  of  the  Talmudim 
and  Midrashim,  with  their  innumerable  annota- 
tions, addenda,  commentaries,  and  responsa. 

The  deeper  the  darkness  of  oppression  that  sur- 
rounded them,  the  more  unbearable  the  hatred  and 
disdain  of  the  Christian  world,  the  further  did  the 

13 


LEON    GORDON 

Jews  withdraw  within  themselves,  the  prouder  was 
their  consciousness  of  their  own  intellectual  su- 
premacy, and  the  more  fervently  and  passionately 
did  they  cling  to  their  religion.  Not  only  did  the 
Talmud  become  the  bulwark  of  Judaism,  but  even 
the  later  Rabbinical  writings  assumed  a  sacredness 
and  authority  second  only  to  that  of  the  Bible  and 
the  Talmud.  Why  not?  Was  not  the  sacred  lit- 
erature of  the  Jews  their  all  in  all  ?  Was  it  not  the 
arena  in  which  their  intellectual  giants  met  in  de- 
termined, though  unbloody,  combat?  Was  it  not 
their  only  refuge  for  comfort  and  consolation? 
Was  it  not  the  common  tie  that  united  them?  It 
was  their  very  life,  their  existence.  We  can  there- 
fore easily  understand  their  attitude  towards  any 
attempt  at  innovation  or  reforms  in  religious  prac- 
tice, and  their  persecution  of  their  own  brethren 
that  dared  advocate  them.  "  Any  one  who  is  not 
with  us  is  against  us ;  any  one  who  has  no  sympathy 
with  the  religious  practices  laid  down  by  Rabbinical 
authorities  is  a  traitor,  and  has  sold  himself  to  the 
enemy."  Naturally,  it  was  inevitable  that  in  the 
course  of  time  non-Jewish  practices  and  beliefs 
should  creep  in  among  them;  in  fact,  Judaism 
had  assumed,  under  the  influence  of  the  later  Rab- 
bis, an  aspect  different  from  and  more  rigorous 

14 


INTRODUCTION 

even  than  Talmudic  Judaism.  Still,  as  the  body  of 
outside  beliefs  and  practices  was  sanctioned  by  the 
Rabbis,  and  was  based  on  the  Talmud,  it  became 
part  and  parcel  of  Judaism,  and  was  observed  with 
the  reverence  paid  to  the  more  essential  rites  of 
the  Jewish  faith. 

But  nichts  1st  dauernd  ah  der  Wechsel.  The  ap- 
parent petrifaction  of  Rabbinical  Judaism  could 
not  endure  forever.  Beneath  the  outer  crust  of  ob- 
stinacy there  was  a  warm  heart  palpitating  with 
susceptibility  to  outside  influences;  and,  like  all  liv- 
ing organisms  subject  to  the  laws  of  life,  which  de- 
mand that  dead  matter  be  discarded  and  rejected, 
and  life-sustaining  nutriment  be  absorbed,  Judaism 
had  to  undergo  a  change.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century  the  sect  of  Hasidim  arose  with 
their  doctrines  of  enthusiasm,  cheerfulness,  and 
joy,  as  a  protest  against  cold,  unattractive,  intellec- 
tual Rabbinism.  However,  even  the  Hasidim  did 
not  dare  infringe  upon  Rabbinical  Judaism  to  any 
appreciable  extent,  beyond  changing  the  Prayer 
Book  and  giving  prominence  to  the  Zohar;  but 
they  soon  succumbed  to  a  blind  hero  worship,  tanta- 
mount to  idolatry,  paid  to  their  several  saints. 
Towards  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  under 
the  influence  from  without  of  French  skepticism 

15 


LEON    GORDON 

and  ideals  of  human  rights,  and  from  within  of 
Mendelssohn,  a  new  movement  was  set  on  foot 
among  German  Jews — a  movement  that  gathered 
momentum  with  the  advance  of  the  spirit  of  democ- 
racy and  liberalism — known  as  the  Haskalah,  or 
culture.  Rabbinical  Judaism,  with  its  excrescences 
of  superstition  and  credulity,  had  to  give  way  to  a 
Judaism  more  decorous,  more  polished,  more  in 
accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  age.  This  was  the 
slogan  of  the  Maskilim,  or  culturists,  and  their 
ideals  spread  rapidly,  first  in  Galicia,  then  in  Po- 
land and  Russia. 

Such  ideals,  aiming  at  the  destruction  of  all  that 
was  dear  and  sacred  to  the  adherents  of  Orthodoxy, 
could  not  but  meet  with  violent  opposition  on  their 
part.  The  Jews  were  divided  into  two  hostile 
camps,  the  young  generation  standing  for  culture, 
the  old  for  the  Talmud.  In  Germany,  however, 
the  struggle,  though  bitter,  was  short  and  decisive. 
The  preachers  of  culture  carried  the  day;  condi- 
tions were  in  their  favor.  The  principles  of  the 
French  Revolution  infected  the  masses  of  Ger- 
many. Liberalism,  though  suppressed  by  the  reac- 
tion, was  still  in  the  air.  The  German  people  itself 
became  cultured  to  a  remarkable  extent,  and  the 
German  Jews  could  not  withstand  the  contagion. 

16 


INTRODUCTION 

They  were  constantly  in  hope  of  being  enfran- 
chised, and  they  had  to  prepare  themselves  for  it. 
The  enfranchisement  that  came  in  1848  inclined 
the  beam  to  the  side  of  culture,  and  the  movement 
was  crowned  with  success.  Not  so  in  Russia.  The 
population  among  whom  the  Jews  dwelt  was  itself 
steeped  in  the  deepest  fanaticism  and  ignorance. 
Most  of  the  natives  were  serfs;  the  nobles  showed 
their  superiority  only  in  their  arrogance  and  bru- 
tality. The  Government  was  autocratic  in  the  ex- 
treme. The  thought  of  emancipation  never  en- 
tered the  minds  either  of  the  Jews  or  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. What  good,  then,  could  the  Jews  gain 
by  culture  ?  Was  it  not  better  for  them  to  remain 
in  their  present  condition  than  change  the  old  for  a 
new  that  held  out  no  prospect  of  better  days? 
Hence  the  difficulty  besetting  the  path  of  the  few 
Russian  pioneers  of  the  Haskalah  that  had  imbibed 
the  German  spirit,  that  beheld  a  new  light,  the 
light  of  European  civilization,  and  were  eager  to 
hold  it  aloft  among  them  that  walked  in  darkness. 
The  fight  was  protracted,  and  it  was  waged  with 
bitter  determination  on  both  sides.  The  older 
generation  looked  down  with  contempt  upon  the 
advocates  of  the  new-fangled  ideas;  the  younger 
generation  worked  with  enthusiasm  and  resolution. 

17 


LEON    GORDON 

Much  did  they  suffer  at  the  hands  of  the  adherents 
of  the  old ;  much  were  they  persecuted ;  but,  as  al- 
ways, persecution  defeated  its  own  ends;  it  only 
created  new  champions  for  the  ideals  it  endeavored 
to  crush.  The  struggle  is  still  going  on  to-day,  but 
the  Maskilim,  by  dint  of  labor,  determination,  and 
perseverance,  have  succeeded  in  rearing  up  a  new 
generation  of  Russian  Jews,  combining  European 
culture  with  Jewish  learning,  uniting  the  civiliza- 
tions of  the  East  and  the  West.  And  foremost  in 
the  ranks  of  these  champions  of  civilization,  in  the 
second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  stands  Leon 
Gordon,  scholar,  poet,  man  of  action,  a  presenta- 
tion of  whose  life  and  works  is  attempted  in  the 
following  pages. 


18 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  PIONEERS  OF  THE  HASKALAH 

The  condition  of  the  Russian  Jews  in  the  first 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  most  deplorable. 
Alexander  I.  (1801-1825),  fickle  and  vacillating, 
began  his  reign  as  a  semi-liberal,  and  his  Jewish 
subjects  hoped  for  an  amelioration  of  their  con- 
dition at  his  hands.  Imbued  at  first  with  the 
Western  spirit,  and  carried  away  by  his  admiration 
for  Napoleon,  he  dreamed  of  curing  his  Empire  of 
the  chronic  disease  of  Asiatic  autocracy,  and  estab- 
lishing a  government  on  the  lines  of  freedom  and 
justice.  While  under  the  influence  of  these  dreams, 
he  turned  his  attention  to  the  Jewish  problem,  and 
the  rigor  of  the  exceptional  laws  against  the  Jews 
was  somewhat  relaxed.  During  the  Napoleonic 
wars,  and  particularly  at  the  time  of  the  French 
invasion,  the  laws  against  them  were  allowed  to 
lapse,  and  the  Czar  made  a  personal  appeal  to  them 
for  help  against  the  French.  With  characteristic 
patriotism,  the  Jews  rendered  all  the  help  in  their 
power;  and,  in  return,  the  Imperial  promise  was 

19 


LEON    GORDON 

made,  that  they  should  be  given  equal  rights  with 
other  Russian  subjects.1  In  1804  an  ukase  was 
issued  giving  the  Jewish  youth  the  privilege  of 
attending  Russian  universities.  The  Czar  also  hit 
upon  colonization  as  a  solution  of  the  Jewish  prob- 
lem. From  1807  to  1810  several  thousands  of 
Jews  were  transferred  to  the  uninhabited  crown 
lands  in  the  Government  of  Kherson,  and  more 
were  sent  there  in  i822-i823.2  But  by  1822  the 
Imperial  pledge  of  giving  the  Jews  equal  rights 
had  been  so  completely  forgotten  that  the  same 
Czar  abolished  most  of  the  Consistorial  organiza- 
tions, with  their  independent  communal  jurisdic- 
tion, which  the  Jews  had  enjoyed  since  the  days  of 
the  Polish  kings.3 

Alexander  had  completely  changed.  No  vestige 
was  left  of  his  dreams  of  a  constitutional  govern- 
ment. The  bugaboo  Napoleon  had  been  made 
harmless;  and,  though,  in  the  first  flush  of  victory, 
Alexander's  heart  went  out  to  his  Jewish  subjects, 
his  enthusiasm  soon  subsided,  and  he  became  a  reck- 
less, irresponsible  tyrant.  His  colonization  scheme 
proved  a  failure.  The  Czar  could  not  understand 
that  a  race  of  agriculturists  cannot  be  created  in  a 
day.  Besides,  had  the  supervision  of  the  scheme 
been  entrusted  to  men  qualified  by  knowledge  and 

20 


THE    PIONEERS    OF   THE    HASKALAH 

experience,  the  failure  might  not  have  been  so  com- 
plete. But,  in  accordance  with  Russian  methods, 
the  charge  of  supervising  the  Jewish  colonies  was 
put  into  the  hands  of  unscrupulous,  ignorant  offi- 
cials, retired  generals  for  the  most  part,  who  ruled 
the  colonists  with  the  utmost  brutality.  The  money 
intended  for  the  budding  colonies  was  frittered 
away  among  the  officials;  neither  houses  nor  the 
proper  implements  were  provided  for  them  as 
promised.  To  these  obstacles  other  misfortunes 
were  superadded — bad  harvests,  epidemics,  sever- 
ity of  the  climate,  and  privations  of  every  kind. 
"  The  Jewish  colonists,"  say  the  official  reports  of 
the  time,  "  are  dying  of  hunger  and  cold  in  the 
heart  of  the  steppes."  Five  thousand  of  their  num- 
ber, out  of  a  total  of  ten  thousand,  succumbed  in  a 
few  years.4  Thus  terminated  the  charitable  inten- 
tions of  Alexander  I. 

The  hopes  for  ameliorated  conditions  were 
blasted  by  the  whim  of  the  despot,  and  the  Russian 
Jews  had  to  bend  their  neck  again  beneath  the  yoke 
of  hateful  and  inhuman  laws.  Accustomed  though 
the  Jews  were  to  disappointments  and  privations, 
it  required  all  their  powers  of  resistance,  and  all 
the  strength  of  desperate  determination,  to  sur- 
vive the  reign  of  terror  that  was  to  follow.  Nicho- 

21 


LEON   GORDON 

las  I.  (1825-1855),  or  Haman  II.,  an  epithet  ap- 
plied to  him  in  every  Jewish  mind,  was  resolved 
upon  the  destruction  of  his  Jewish  subjects  by 
means  of  conversion.  He  was  "  a  man  of  immense 
personal  force,  tireless  energy,  and  original  ideas, 
which,  from  their  very  narrowness,  ran  deep  and 
strong."  An  autocrat  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the 
term,  an  extreme  fanatic,  combining  in  himself  all 
the  prejudices  transmitted  to  him  by  his  Tartar  an- 
cestors, he  began  to  execute  his  plans  with  the 
frankness  and  cruelty  of  a  Zulu  Indian.  To  form 
a  correct  notion  of  his  policy  and  its  execution,  it 
will  be  best  to  give  a  digest  of  the  fifth  chapter  of 
Mr.  Harold  Frederic's  book,  "  The  New  Exodus." 

"  Nicholas  had  an  essentially  military  mind.  He  began  his 
propaganda  against  Israel  through  martial  channels.  In  April, 
1827,  he  issued  an  ukase  rendering  Jews  liable  to  military  con- 
scription like  other  subjects.  Unlike  other  subjects,  however,  the 
Jewish  recruit  had  to  serve  twenty-five  years  without  ever  being 
eligible  to  promotion.  But,  though  no  instructions  were  com- 
mitted to  paper,  it  became  speedily  understood  in  the  army  that 
the  Czar  desired  heavy  pressure  to  be  put  upon  the  Hebrew 
soldiers,  to  win  them  over  to  baptism.  This  pressure  became 
universal,  and  naturally  took  the  shape  of  cruel  torment  to  the 
obdurate. 

"  But  this  process  was  too  slow.  Accordingly,  Nicholas  in- 
vented a  scheme  of  military  colonies,  or  schools,  to  be  planted 

22 


THE    PIONEERS    OF   THE    HASKALAH 

in  the  remote  south,  to  be  devoted  to  the  combined  conversion 
and  martial  training  of  the  Hebrew  youth.  This  was  an  adap- 
tation of  the  plan  of  settling  regiments  of  the  line  about  in  the 
farm  lands  among  the  crown  serfs,  which  General  Arakcheieff 
had  proposed  and  carried  out  under  the  preceding  reign.  Under 
this  pretty  plan,  press-gangs  were  now  deputed  to  prowl  about 
the  Pale  and  forcibly  abduct  Jewish  boys  of  from  five  to  ten 
years  of  age.  These  were  carried  off  to  the  southern  settle- 
ment camps,  and,  after  a  violent  baptism,  were  trained  to  the 
use  of  arms,  and  brought  up  as  soldiers.  Jewish  boys  are,  how- 
ever, extremely  precocious  in  the  matter  of  theological  learning. 
Their  religious  education  begins  so  early  that  at  eight  their  con- 
victions are  quite  as  well  grounded  as  those  of  their  elders. 
Some  of  these  lads  used  to  resist  baptism;  then  it  was  the  com- 
mandant's thoughtful  custom  to  put  them  in  solitary  confinement 
and  feed  them  on  salt  herrings  without  water  to  drink,  until 
they  consented  to  accept  the  baptismal  rite. 

"  But  it  was  not  alone  through  the  machinery  of  the  army  that 
the  proselyting  screws  were  put  upon  Israel.  In  every  walk  of 
life  rewards  were  visibly  dangled  before  the  eyes  of  the  Jews 
if  they  would  forsake  Judaism.  The  local  officials,  eagerly  in- 
terpreting and  putting  into  execution  the  desires  of  their  master, 
did  abominable  and  often  ridiculous  things.  The  only  mode  of 
Europeanizing  the  Czar's  Jewish  subjects  that  they  could  con- 
ceive of  was,  even  so  late  as  the  days  of  the  Crimean  War,  to 
station  policemen  at  the  corners  of  the  streets  leading  to  the 
Jewish  quarters,  their  business  being  to  catch  Jews  as  they  passed 
and  cut  off  with  scissors  their  long  earlocks,  or  pe'ies,  and  the 
skirts  of  their  caftans. 

"  Nicholas  II.  made  serious  efforts  to  plant  Jews  upon  the 
23 


LEON    GORDON 

soil  as  agriculturists.  The  story  of  these  attempts  is  one  of  the 
most  melancholy  in  the  whole  unhappy  record  of  the  race — 
at  once  melancholy  and  grimly  grotesque.  .  .  .  Great  colonies 
of  Jews,  sometimes  numbering  hundreds  of  families,  were  now 
gathered  up  promiscuously,  transported  across  to  the  desolate 
prairie  lands  of  Novorossusk,  and  dumped  down  upon  the  un- 
broken soil  to  thrive  by  agriculture.  In  any  case  the  experiment 
could  have  promised  scant  success.  As  it  was  managed,  it  be- 
came simply  murderous.  A  staff  of  officials,  almost  as  numerous 
as  the  colonists  themselves,  was  appointed  to  control  things.  Each 
family  was  supposed  to  be  granted  one  hundred  and  fifty  roubles, 
but  of  this  the  officials  gave  the  family  only  thirty.  The  rest 
purported  to  have  been  expended  in  buying  land,  farm  machin- 
ery, building  houses,  etc.  But  seven-eighths  of  it  was  really 
stolen,  and  such  colonists  as  did  not  die  on  the  road  found  only 
groups  of  shanties  not  fit  for  pigs,  and  implements  which  broke 
in  their  hands.  Here,  under  the  control  of  brutal  officials  who 
knouted  the  incapable,  but  could  not  advise  or  instruct  the  in- 
dustrious, these  unhappy  town  Jews  died  of  epidemics  or  starva- 
tion. The  chief  digging  they  did  was  digging  of  graves. 

"  The  report  of  M.  Stemple,  who  was  superintendent  of  the 
Ekaterinoslav  settlements,  made  in  1847,  which  was  not  espe- 
cially sympathetic  to  the  Jews,  presents  an  almost  incredible  tale 
of  suffering.  Official  documents  picture  the  colonists  as  arriving 
at  the  beginning  of  winter,  to  find  a  cluster  of  wretched  huts, 
damp,  half-open,  and  too  low  for  a  man  to  stand  upright  in, 
prepared  for  them  to  inhabit.  These  cabins  had,  let  it  be  borne 
in  mind,  cost  the  Government  enormous  sums  of  money.  The 
Jews  begged  to  be  allowed  to  reconstruct  these  shanties;  permis- 
sion was  refused  by  the  officials.  Stemple,  the  superintendent, 

24 


THE    PIONEERS    OF   THE    HASKALAH 

then  suggested  that  the  Jews  should  be  allowed  to  find  shelter 
in  neighboring  villages  until  spring.  This  also  was  refused, 
and  they  were  peremptorily  ordered  to  occupy  the  houses  assigned 
to  them.  Those  who  had  already  sought  refuge  in  the  villages 
round  about  were  driven  back  by  the  Cossacks,  under  circum- 
stances of  the  greatest  barbarism.  Epidemics  of  scurvy  and  small- 
pox broke  out  shortly  after." 

The  discrimination  against  the  Jewish  colonists 
and  Jews  in  general  is  further  shown  by  Professor 
Leo  Errara: 

"  To  German  and  Bulgarian  colonists  sixty  dessiatines  *  of  land 
were  given,  which  they  were  allowed  to  select,  and  new  lots 
were  granted  to  them  as  their  families  grew  in  numbers.  They 
were  also  permitted  to  follow  some  trade  or  business  according 
to  their  liking.  To  the  Jews,  however,  only  thirty  dessiatines  of 
land  were  allotted,  which  were  selected  by  the  administration; 
seven  dessiatines  were  afterwards  taken  away.  When  the  family 
increased,  their  very  inadequate  tract  of  land  was  not  augmented. 
....  Jewish  colonists  were  absolutely  forbidden  to  obtain  any 
supplementary  income  for  themselves  by  following  some  occupa- 
tion other  than  that  of  agriculture."  * 

Nicholas  I.  still  further  diminished  the  Pale  of 
Settlement  by  excluding  the  towns  of  Kiev,  Nico- 
laiev,  and  Sebastopol,  and  he  renewed  the  law  of 
his  predecessor,  Alexander  I.,  with  regard  to  the 
fifty  versts  on  the  Eastern  frontier,  the  belt  within 

*  A  Russian  land  measure  =  2.702  English  acres. 
25 


LEON    GORDON 

which  it  was  forbidden  to  the  Jews  to  erect  their 
domicile.7  Expulsion  from  cities  was  also  resorted 
to,  as  in  the  good  old  times  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
In  1829  the  Jews  were  banished  from  Nicolaiev, 
but  were  recalled  in  1830,  when  it  was  recognized 
how  great  an  injury  their  expulsion  had  caused  the 
city.8  In  the  same  year  the  Karaite  Jews  of  Trok, 
Wilna,  obtained  a  decree  of  expulsion  against  the 
other  Jews  of  the  town.'  The  Christian  guilds  of 
Knyshin,  in  1845,  procured  the  expulsion  of  the 
Jews  from  their  town;  in  1858  we  find  them  ad- 
mitting that  it  had  done  injury  to  the  place,  and 
they  begged  that  the  order  be  revoked.10  The 
"  milch-cow  theory  "  was  in  full  vogue  in  Russia. 
And  yet  Professor  Leo  Errara  has  the  goodness 
to  remark  that  "  with  these  exceptions  it  would  be 
unjust  to  ignore  the  comparative  peace  which  the 
Jews  enjoyed  in  this  reign;  or  to  forget  that  the 
Czar  allowed  them  to  leave  their  own  special  dis- 
tricts in  order  to  visit  the  great  fairs,"  u — as  if  the 
great  fairs  could  have  been  successful  without  the 
help  of  the  Jewish  merchants.  The  only  redeem- 
ing feature  in  the  reign  of  Nicholas  was  the  ex- 
ception made  in  Russian  laws  in  favor  of  the 
Jews  graduated  from  the  higher  schools  of  the 
Empire.  They  were  allowed  liberty  of  residence 

26 


THE    PIONEERS    OF   THE    HASKALAH 

throughout  the  realm.  The  opportunities  which 
Nicholas  I.  finally  offered  to  the  Jews  in  the  matter 
of  education  were  not,  however,  very  generally 
embraced  during  this  reign.  The  Jews  remem- 
bered his  early  devices  of  abducting  and  forcibly 
baptizing  their  boys,  and  suspected  some  new 
scheme  of  conversion  or  perversion  in  this  opening 
of  schools. 

The  result  of  such  persecution  was,  in  the  words 
of  Harold  Frederic,  "  to  solidify  the  Jews  into  a 
dense,  hard-baked,  and  endlessly  resistant  mass." 
The  policy  of  conversion,  aimed  at  their  very  life- 
blood,  their  religion,  was  opposed  with  all  the  de- 
termination of  despair.  They  clung  to  the  study  of 
the  Talmud;  and  all  the  minutiae  of  the  Rabbinical 
laws  were  practised  and  regarded  as  essentials  of 
Judaism.  Withdrawing  deeper  and  deeper  within 
themselves,  and  farther  and  farther  away  from  the 
outside  world,  they  gradually  came  to  consider  all 
things  not  Jewish  as  against  Judaism.  They  looked 
with  hatred  upon  secular  education  as  subversive 
of  Judaism,  or,  at  best,  as  useless,  and  a  waste  of 
time  that  might  be  devoted  with  better  advantage 
to  the  Torah.  Every  Jewish  youth  was  taught  the 
Bible  and  Talmud;  but  the  study  of  the  latter  was 
considered  even  more  important  than  that  of  the 

27 


LEON    GORDON 

former,  apparently  because  the  Talmud  was  the 
frequent  subject  of  attack  and  ridicule  by  the  ene- 
mies of  Judaism.  The  Shulhan  Aruk  was  the 
legal  code,  and  its  practical  laws,  together  with  the 
glosses  of  Isserles,  were  observed  in  all  their  de- 
tail. Pilpulism,  or  casuistry,  in  the  study  of  Rab- 
binical writings  was  developed  to  the  utmost  de- 
gree. The  great  mass  of  the  people,  particularly 
the  Hasidim,  were  sunk  in  the  deepest  superstitions 
and  fanaticism.  Devils  and  ghosts  were  believed 
in;  miracles  on  the  part  of  the  Rabbis  were  re- 
ported and  accepted  as  indisputable  facts.  Tal- 
mudic  fables  were  taken  literally;  the  belief  in 
charms,  cameos,  and  Gilgulim  was  considered  an 
essential  of  religion.  The  Rabbis,  eager  to  pro- 
tect Judaism  from  the  pressure  brought  to  bear 
against  it  by  Nicholas,  became  very  rigorous  in 
their  interpretation  of  Rabbinical  laws.  More- 
over, Nicholas  placed  a  tremendous  weapon  in  the 
hands  of  the  elders  and  Orthodox  leaders  in  every 
Jewish  community,  by  making  the  Kahal,  or  Jew- 
ish Consistories,  responsible  for  furnishing  the  due 
quota  of  Jewish  recruits.  The  old  people  of  the 
strict  Talmudic  sect  had  it  in  their  power  to  deliver 
over  to  the  bondage  of  the  army,  at  their  own  dis- 
cretion and  at  all  times,  any  young  Jew  that  of- 

28 


THE    PIONEERS    OF   THE    HASKALAH 

fended  them,  or  whose  opinions  they  regarded  as 
dangerous,  because  heterodox.13  Nor  did  they  hesi- 
tate to  misuse  their  power  in  this  way.  The  offi- 
cials of  the  Jewish  Consistories  were,  for  the  most 
part,  greedy,  unscrupulous  men,  who  used  their  tre- 
mendous power  for  their  own  gain.  Poor  boys 
were  often  substituted  for  the  sons  of  the  rich  liable 
to  conscription,  for  a  money  consideration,  which 
the  elders  pocketed.  This  misrule  resulted  in  a 
state  of  anarchy.  The  abduction  of  small  boys  by 
the  press-gangs,  many  members  of  which  were 
Jews,  spread  terror  and  desolation  in  Jewish 
homes.  The  "  catchers  "  were  particularly  the  ob- 
jects of  abhorrence,  and  often  summary  vengeance 
was  executed  upon  them.  The  children  of  the 
"  catchers  "  were  frequently  murdered  by  the  ex- 
asperated parents  of  the  abducted  children.  Add 
to  this  the  extreme  poverty  of  the  populace — for 
Jews  were  not  allowed  either  to  lease  or  own  land, 
nor  engage  in  commerce  and  manufacture — and 
the  picture  of  horror  is  complete. 

In  such  circumstances  it  seems  almost  miraculous 
that,  in  spite  of  the  inner  and  outer  isolation  of  the 
Jews,  the  light  of  Western  civilization  succeeded  in 
penetrating  the  darkness  of  the  Pale.  That  it  did 
pierce  it  is  due  to  the  Haskalah  movement.  Grad- 

29 


LEON    GORDON 

ually  it  lighted  up  the  whole  Jewish  horizon.  It 
started  in  Konigsberg,  under  the  influence  of  Men- 
delssohn and  Wessely.  In  1783,  a  band  of  Jewish 
young  men,  enthusiasts  in  the  cause  of  introducing 
European  culture  among  their  brethren,  founded 
a  Hebrew  periodical,  Ha-Meassef,  "  The  Gath- 
erer," as  a  medium  of  propaganda.  The  contribu- 
tors to  this  periodical,  Euchel,  Bresselau,  Fried- 
laender,  Wolfsohn,  Friedrichsfeld,  Satanow,  and 
others,  were  men  for  the  most  part  who  combined 
profound  Hebrew  knowledge  with  more  or  less 
academic  training,  and  who  were  inspired  with  a 
sincere  desire  to  introduce  reforms  in  Judaism  and 
show  their  brethren  the  necessity  of  a  secular  edu- 
cation in  connection  with  their  religious  training. 
The  literary  productions  of  the  Meassef  have  no 
enduring  value ; 13  but  they  served  their  purpose  at 
the  time,  and,  unconsciously  perhaps,  they  laid  the 
foundation  for  a  new  Hebrew  literature,  which  was 
destined  to  become  a  great  factor  in  the  uplifting 
of  their  people  in  Russia  and  Poland.  The  Meas- 
sef contained  Biblical  exegesis,  occasional  poems, 
and  biographies,  and  did  a  great  deal  towards  puri- 
fying the  Hebrew  language  from  the  conceits  and 
artificial  diction  of  former  writers.  It  brought 
about  a  revival  in  the  Jewish  national  conscious- 

30 


THE    PIONEERS    OF    THE    HASKALAH 

ness;  it  inspired  a  feeling  of  love  for  the  people 
and  its  language,  and  the  desire  for  the  perpetua- 
tion of  both. 

The  object  of  the  Meassefim  was  not  assimila- 
tion and  the  destruction  of  Judaism.  Judaism  was 
secure  enough  with  the  disciples  of  Ezekiel  Landau 
and  Raphael  Cohen.  What  they  worked  for  was 
to  show  the  Jews  who  were  steeped  in  Pilpulism 
that  the  outside  world  was  worth  while  noticing, 
and  that  a  secular  education  was  a  necessity.  They 
did  not  think  the  Haskalah  subversive  of  Judaism. 
They  had  complete  faith  in  the  possibility  of  unit- 
ing Judaism  with  culture.  Yet,  unconsciously,  their 
intentions  were  national ;  else  how  account  for  their 
eagerness  to  rehabilitate  the  forsaken  Hebrew 
tongue  and  purify  the  language,  how  account  for 
their  joy  at  every  new  apparition  on  the  horizon  of 
Hebrew  literature?  The  writers  of  the  period 
were  men  with  a  message  to  their  generation,  and 
their  plain  and  impressive  words  were  both  new 
and  useful  to  their  readers.14 

The  Meassef  ceased  publication  in  1797,  but  the 
foundation  of  a  new  literature  thus  laid  was  firmly 
established.  It  was  succeeded  in  1821-1832  by  the 
Bikkure  ha-Ittim,  founded  by  Solomon  Cohen  and 
conducted  along  the  same  lines  as  the  first  periodi- 

31 


LEON    GORDON 

cal.  Its  literature  was  not  of  a  high  order.  It  was 
filled  either  with  reprints  from  the  Meassef  or  with 
meaningless  rhymes  and  philosophizing  articles, 
the  work  of  tyros.15  "This  was  a  period  of  homun- 
culi,  of  small  idealists  and  small  ideals.  If  there 
were  any  ideals  at  all,  they  were  of  a  negative  char- 
acter :  '  That  we  might  not  believe  in  falsehood 
and  not  turn  after  false  opinions.'  Literature  was 
not  confined  to  great  writers;  anybody  wrote  if 
only  he  knew  Hebrew.  The  writers  had  no  espe- 
cial object  in  view ;  they  wrote  for  the  sake  of  seeing 
their  names  in  print,  and  as  an  exercise  in  Hebrew ; 
above  all,  because  other  nations  wrote,  and  what 
other  nations  do,  Jews  must  necessarily  imitate. 
They  wanted  to  destroy  the  old  Judaism  of  the 
Talmud  and  the  Ghetto.  Their  ideals  were  hu- 
manitarian and  political,  and  were  simply  a  repeti- 
tion of  the  Haskalah  of  the  Meassefim."  '  Never- 
theless, the  neo-Hebraic  literature  made  remark- 
able strides,  especially  in  Galicia.  Erter  wrote  his 
inimitable  satires  on  Hasidic  life,  Ha-Zofeh  le-Bet 
Yisrael;  Krochmal  busied  himself  with  theological 
philosophy  in  his  Moreh  Nebuche  ha-Zeman 
("  Guide  to  the  Perplexed  of  the  Time  ")  ;  and 
Rapoport  was  engaged  in  critical  studies  on  the 
Bible  and  Jewish  history.  Jehudah  Lob  Jeiteles, 

32 


THE    PIONEERS   OF   THE    HASKALAH 

who  succeeded  Moses  Landau  as  editor  of  the 
Bikkure  ha-Ittim,  made  the  paper  truly  scientific, 
and  a  factor  in  Jewish  life;  and  his  work  was  con- 
tinued by  S.  L.  Goldenberg  in  the  Kerem  Hemed 
(1833).  The  Maskilim  had  now  become  a  force. 
Their  slogan  was  the  same  as  Rapoport's:  "  We 
have  to  educate  our  people  in  order  to  find  favor 
with  out  neighbors.  We  are  hated  only  because 
we  lack  culture  " ; 1T  and  the  work  of  education  went 
steadily  on. 

It  was  inevitable  that  the  influence  of  the  new 
movement  should  make  itself  felt  in  Russia  and  in 
Russian  Poland ;  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  new  move- 
ment had  had  its  adherents  in  Russia  from  its  in- 
cipiency.  Even  Elijah  Wilna,  pietist  and  Talmud- 
ist  though  he  was,  had,  indirectly  and  uncon- 
sciously perhaps,  contributed  towards  the  advance 
of  the  new  ideas.  He  had  introduced  a  new  sys- 
tem in  Rabbinical  studies;  discarding  Pilpulism,  he 
studied  grammar  (his  grammatical  notes  on  some 
portions  of  Genesis  are  published  in  the  first  vol- 
ume of  Rabinowitz's  Keneset  Yisrael),  and  en- 
couraged his  disciple,  Rabbi  Baruch,  of  Sklow,  to 
translate  scientific  works  into  Hebrew."  The  Me- 
assef  at  its  first  appearance  had  Polish  contributors 
in  the  persons  of  Bensew  and  Satanow,  as  well  as 

33 


LEON    GORDON 

a  number  of  subscribers  in  Poland  and  Russia. 
But  these  were  individual  exceptions;  they  were 
not  numerous  and  strong  enough  to  form  a  class. 
The  new  ideas,  however,  gained  ground  gradually, 
and,  during  the  reign  of  Nicholas,  the  Haskalah  in 
Russia  assumed  a  form  of  its  own,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  Isaac  Bar  Levinsohn,  S.  J.  Fuenn,  M.  A. 
Giinzburg,  Slonimski,  and  Abraham  Bar  Leben- 
sohn. 

Isaac  Bar  Levinsohn  (1788-1860)  was  a  man 
of  remarkable  erudition.  Not  only  was  he  a  Tal- 
mudic  scholar  of  extraordinary  acumen,  but  he  pos- 
sessed also  a  knowledge  of  secular  subjects  and  of 
several  European  languages.  Mastered  by  sincere 
love  for  his  people,  and  by  the  desire  to  emancipate 
them  from  their  intellectual  isolation,  he  brought 
his  great  storehouse  of  Hebrew  learning  to  bear 
upon  this  purpose.  He  realized  that  philosophy 
and  logic  would  not  convince  the  people  that  secular 
education  is  sanctioned  by  Judaism.  The  only  way 
to  accomplish  this  was  to  prove  from  the  Rabbin- 
ical sources  themselves  that  the  very  Rabbinical 
authorities  and  all  shining  lights  of  Judaism  were 
men  that  studied  the  sciences  and  languages  outside 
of  Hebrew.  For  this  purpose  he  wrote,  in  1828, 
the  Te'uddah  be-Yisrael.  He  showed  by  incontro- 

34 


THE    PIONEERS    OF   THE    HASKALAH 

vertible  proof,  from  all  Jewish  sources,  that  the 
greatest  Rabbis,  with  few  exceptions,  have  recog- 
nized the  value  of  secular  education,  and  that  a 
knowledge  of  the  sciences  is  not  subversive  of  Ju- 
daism. The  book  was  written  in  a  straightforward 
manner,  free  from  all  sophistry  and  unnecessary 
philosophy,  and  it  was  conceived  in  so  thoroughly 
a  Jewish  spirit  that  even  the  ultra-Orthodox  could 
find  no  fault  with  it,  except,  indeed,  as  Rabbi 
Abele,  of  Wilna,  expressed  it,  "  that  it  was  not 
written  by  Elijah  Wilna."  By  this  book  Levinsohn 
removed  at  one  stroke  the  greatest  obstacle  to  the 
spread  of  the  Haskalah — the  religious  prejudice 
against  it.  He  convinced  his  people  of  the  neces- 
sity of  a  knowledge  of  the  vernacular,  the  sciences, 
and  Hebrew  grammar.  In  the  same  year  he  com- 
pleted his  Bet  Yehudah,  a  history  of  Judaism  and 
Jewish  sects;  and  in  1837  he  wrote  Efes  Dammim, 
a  refutation  of  the  blood-accusation  charges,  which 
was  translated  into  English  by  Dr.  Loewe,  in  1840, 
at  the  instance  of  Sir  Moses  Montefiore,  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Damascus  affair. 

The  influence  which  his  works  in  behalf  of  the 
education  of  his  people  exerted  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  the  Minister  of  Education  and  of  Czar 
Nicholas,  and  he  took  advantage  of  this  favorable 

35 


LEON   GORDON 

notice  of  the  Government  for  the  founding  of  Jew- 
ish schools  throughout  the  Empire.  In  this  way 
Levinsohn,  more  than  any  other  individual,  pre- 
pared the  way  for  the  Haskalah  in  Russia.1* 

Samuel  Joseph  Fuenn  (1819-1891),  also  a 
product  of  the  old  generation,  combined  thorough 
Talmudic  scholarship  with  a  knowledge  of  modern 
languages.  He  was  not  an  original  writer;  he  de- 
voted himself  mostly  to  useful  translations  into 
Hebrew,  which  opened  a  new  field  for  the  reflec- 
tion of  the  thoughtful.  Among  the  more  impor- 
tant of  his  translations  were  a  Bible  history  after 
Zunz  (1847)  and  a  Russian  grammar  in  Yiddish 
(in  the  same  year).  He  was  a  teacher  in  the  He- 
brew school  of  Wilna  in  1841,  and  in  the  Seminary 
of  Wilna  opened  by  the  Government  in  1848.  In 
1856  he  was  appointed  curator  of  all  the  Hebrew 
schools  in  the  province  of  Wilna,  and  by  his  per- 
sonal example  he  showed  the  possibility  of  uniting 
Judaism  with  culture.  The  greatest  service  he  ren- 
dered Hebrew  literature  was,  however,  by  the  pub- 
lication of  the  Pirhe  Zafon,  a  journal  modelled 
after  the  Meassef,  of  which  only  two  volumes  ap- 
peared (1841-1844),  and  Ha-Karmel,  a  weekly, 
in  1859.  He  took  an  active  part  in  communal  af- 
fairs, was  kind  and  generous,  in  a  word,  a  true 

36 


THE    PIONEERS    OF   THE    HASKALAH 

idealist.  His  very  personality  gained  adherents  for 
the  cause  of  the  Haskalah.20 

Mordecai  Aaron  Gunzburg  ( 1796-1 846 ) ,  justly 
styled  "  the  Father  of  Hebrew  Prose,"  was,  like 
Fuenn,  a  translator  primarily,  but  he  possessed  a 
pure,  incisive  style,  which  far  surpassed  that  of  his 
predecessors.  Though  he  did  not  create  anything 
lasting  as  far  as  subject-matter  is  concerned,  he 
taught  the  younger  generation  a  new  language,  free 
from  the  stilted  rhetoric  of  his  contemporaries,  and 
his  works  are  even  to-day  important  as  models  of 
style.  He  wrote  several  books  on  the  Napoleonic 
wars  in  Russia ;  a  history  of  the  blood-accusation  of 
Damascus  in  1840,  and  an  account  of  Montefiore's 
travels  in  Russia  in  behalf  of  his  brethren  ( 1 860)  * 

Hayyim  Selig  Slonimski  succeeded  to  a  great 
extent  in  popularizing  mathematics  among  his 
people,  by  writing  works  on  mathematics  and  as- 
tronomy in  Hebrew.  Abraham  Bar  Lebensohn 
(1789-1878),  scholar,  grammarian,  and  a  profes- 
sor in  the  Wilna  Seminary,  gained  a  great  reputa- 
tion as  a  poet  by  his  Shire  Sefat  Kodesh.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  his  poetry  is  nothing  but  philosoph- 
ical speculations  in  rhyme;  there  is  neither  depth 
nor  poetic  feeling  in  his  lines.  But  he  was  a  great 
rhetorician,  a  master  of  Hebrew.  His  notes  on 

37 


LEON   GORDON 

Bensew's  Hebrew  grammar  secured  a  wide  circu- 
lation, and  thus  he,  like  Giinzburg,  was  instru- 
mental in  creating  a  correct,  literary  Hebrew,  mod- 
elled after  the  language  of  European  literatures. 
Together  with  the  bibliographer  Ben-Jacob,  he 
published  the  Pentateuch  with  Mendelssohn's 
translation,  and  thereby  helped  to  spread  a  knowl- 
edge of  German  among  the  young  Talmudic 
students.22 

Outside  of  the  productions  of  these  men,  the  lit- 
erature of  the  period  had  no  relation  whatever  to 
the  crying  needs  of  the  time.  Abraham  Mapu 
(1808-1867),  a  brilliant  stylist,  busied  himself 
with  the  portrayal  of  the  past  in  his  Ahabat 
Ziyyon ;  Kalman  Shulman,  a  poet  in  prose,  labored 
on  a  translation  of  Eugene  Sue's  "  Mysteries  of 
Paris"  into  Hebrew;  and  Mordecai  Plungian  en- 
deavored to  explain  away  difficult  passages  in  the 
Bible.  There  was  a  number  of  scholars  in  Russia, 
outside  of  those  mentioned  above,  especially  the 
men  connected  with  the  two  Seminaries.  In  Wilna 
there  were  Scherschewski,  Salkind,  Klaczko,  Be- 
hak,  and  Katzenellenbogen ;  in  Jitomir,  Eichen- 
baum,  Zweifel,  Suchostaver,  Bakst,  Politzinetzky, 
and  Lerner.  However,  they  were  all  above  the 
people;  either  they  were  occupied  with  scholarly 

38 


THE    PIONEERS    OF   THE    HASKALAH 

works,  or  they  wrote  on  subjects  that  had  nothing 
to  do  with  Judaism  and  with  their  own  times.28 
None  of  them  thought  of  finding  ways  and  means 
of  improving  the  condition  of  their  people.  "  The 
literature  of  the  day  was  a  literature  of  panegyrics; 
every  writer  looked  upon  himself  as  a  Socrates,  a 
Huss,  a  Galileo — a  martyr  to  his  ideals."  But 
they  did  nothing  to  help  their  people  in  a  practical 
way. 

And  yet  these  men  accomplished  a  great  deal. 
They  created  a  class,  a  generation  of  men,  that  no 
longer  looked  askance  at  education  and  culture,  and 
a  set  of  young  men  ready  to  sacrifice  their  all  in 
order  to  get  out  of  the  intellectual  Ghetto  and 
enter  the  infinite  world  of  secular  wisdom.  They 
had  transplanted  the  new  Hebrew  literature  from 
Germany  where,  taken  all  in  all,  it  was  an  exotic, 
to  the  more  congenial  Russian  soil;  *  and  they 
gleaned  it,  fenced  it  in,  strengthened,  and  purified 

*  The  renaissance  of  the  Hebrew  language  was  the  result  of 
necessity.  The  Jews  of  the  Slavic  countries  always  felt  a  strong 
kinship  with  each  other,  and  the  need  of  a  common  language. 
In  Lithuania  there  was  an  additional  reason.  With  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Polish  nationality,  the  Polish  language  was  almost 
completely  forgotten,  and  as  no  other  language  was  substituted, 
the  Lithuanians  having  no  written  literature,  they  fell  back  upon 
the  Hebrew,  which  they  enlarged  and  improved.  Wolf  Jabez, 
Migdal  ha-Meah,  in  Rabinowitz's  Keneset  Yisrael,  i,  p.  146. 

39 


LEON   GORDON 

it.  The  two  Seminaries,  though  not  the  success  the 
Government  and  the  early  Maskilim  hoped  they 
would  be,  turned  out  men  of  education,  Hebrew 
and  secular,  who  helped  to  disseminate  the  seeds  of 
culture  among  the  people.  Of  course,  the  men  of 
the  older  generation  could  not  but  see  with  alarm 
and  consternation  the  spread  of  the  modern  ideal. 
Nor  did  they  hesitate  to  do  everything  in  their 
power,  by  means  of  excommunication  and  the  con- 
scription, to  stem  the  tide  of  the  new  ideas  that 
threatened  to  overwhelm  them.  But  they  were 
powerless.  A  new  era  was  coming,  an  era  of  peace 
and  hope  and  civilization,  an  era  of  tolerance  and 
semi-emancipation;  and  a  new  champion  arose  in 
Russian  Israel,  who  was  to  do  battle  both  with  the 
extremists,  the  over-Europeanized  Maskilim,  and 
the  over-Asiatic  Orthodox,  in  behalf  of  a  truer, 
broader,  more  tolerant  Judaism.  The  new  cham- 
pion was  Leon  Gordon. 


CHAPTER  II 
GORDON  IN  LITHUANIA 

The  new  era  of  peace  and  emancipation  was  the 
reign  of  Alexander  II.  The  Czar  was  a  man  of 
liberal  ideas,  and  looked  favorably  upon  the  Jews. 
Not  that, even  he  ever  thought  that  the  Jews  of 
Russia  ought  to  be  placed  on  a  level  with  other 
Russian  subjects;  but  he  felt  that  the  restrictive 
laws  of  his  father  were  cruel  and  barbarous.  None 
of  the  exceptional  laws  of  his  predecessor  was  abro- 
gated or  blotted  from  the  statute  books ;  they  were 
merely  allowed  to  lapse.  The  Czar  was  influenced 
by  expediency  rather  than  humanitarian  motives. 
It  was  felt,  especially  after  the  disastrous  Crimean 
War,  that  the  country  would  go  to  ruin  if  the  vast 
resources  of  the  vast  Empire  were  neglected,  and 
the  Jews,  patient,  frugal,  and  industrious,  were  the 
only  ones  capable  of  the  necessary  effort  to  insure 
their  development.  The  Czar,  therefore,  from 
1857-1865,  gave  to  Jewish  merchants  of  the  First 
Guild,*  as  well  as  to  artisans  and  men  of  higher 

*  The  constitution  of  this  privileged  commercial  class  is  curious. 
A  Jewish  merchant  inside  the  Pale  who  has  paid  annual  taxes 

41 


LEON    GORDON 

education,  the  right  of  residence  throughout  the 
Empire.  The  number  of  merchants  of  the  First 
Guild  was  very  small,  but  as  the  law  allowed  such 
privileged  merchants  to  take  as  many  Jewish  clerks 
with  them  as  they  needed,  considerable  numbers  of 
book-keepers,  accountants,  and  superior  salesmen 
were  brought  into  the  interior,  under  the  obvious 
meaning  of  this  permissive  clause.  Skilled  artisans 
also  took  advantage  of  the  law  in  their  favor,  and 
migrated  to  the  interior.  On  the  whole,  somewhat 
less  than  one  million  Jews  succeeded  in  gaining  en- 
trance into  the  interior  during  the  reign  of  Alex- 
ander II.;  and  the  police  authorities,  scenting  lib- 
eralism in  the  air,  did  not  molest  even  those  Jews 
who  obviously  had  no  right  of  residence  in  the  in- 
terior, merely  satisfying  themselves  with  as  much 
blackmail  money  as  they  could  conveniently  obtain. 
In  nothing  were  the  beneficent  effects  of  the  law 

amounting  to  one  thousand  roubles  for  five  consecutive  years  may 
then  establish  himself  provisionally  in  a  city  of  the  interior. 
Here,  for  a  further  term  of  ten  years,  he  must  pay  the  same 
amount  of  taxes.  Then  his  term  of  probation  is  over,  and  he 
may  thereafter  live  in  any  part  of  the  Empire.  A  merchant 
that  has  been  a  member  of  the  Guild  for  twenty-five  years  se- 
cures for  himself  and  his  direct  descendants  the  title  of  Hereditary 
Citizen,  which  assures  to  the  posterity  of  its  owner  the  right  of 
residence  in  any  part  of  the  Empire.  Harold  Frederic,  "  The 
New  Exodus,"  p.  93,  and  Professor  Leo  Errara,  "  The  Russian 
Jews,"  pp.  25-26. 

42 


GORDON    IN    LITHUANIA 

more  plainly  exhibited  than  in  the  matter  of  educa- 
tion. The  Jews  have  been  distinguished  in  every 
land  and  in  every  age  for  the  stress  they  lay  upon 
the  education  of  the  young.  In  Russia,  at  the  time 
under  consideration,  they  had  the  added  incentive 
of  securing  the  special  privileges  for  their  sons  that 
are  still  granted  to  Jews  that  possess  a  higher  edu- 
cation. "  Every  father,"  says  Harold  Frederic, 
"  who  now  could,  by  doubling  his  own  labor  and 
self-denial,  send  his  son  to  school,  did  so.  In  the 
case  of  bright  and  promising  Jewish  boys  whose 
parents  were  too  poor,  it  was  a  common  thing  for 
the  neighbors  of  the  village  or  quarter  to  raise  a 
purse  among  themselves  to  send  them  to  school." 
This  statement  is  somewhat  exaggerated,  as  will 
be  seen  from  what  follows ;  yet  a  very  great  num- 
ber took  advantage  of  the  higher  education.  "  Be- 
fore 1886,"  says  Professor  Leo  Errara,*  "when 
the  number  of  Jews  admissible  to  the  Universities 
was  limited  to  so  many  per  cent,  there  were  forty- 
eight  Jewish  pupils  in  the  higher  schools  out  of  a 
population  of  ten  thousand  inhabitants,  against 
twenty-two  Christian  pupils  among  the  same  num- 
ber of  inhabitants."  Their  natural  inclination  to- 
wards learning,  coupled  with  the  incentive  of  spe- 
cial privileges,  asserted  itself  imperatively. 

43 


LEON   GORDON 

This  change  for  the  better  in  their  political  and 
economic  condition  could  not  but  effect  a  change  in 
the  inner  life  of  the  Jews.  The  class  of  the  Maski- 
lim,  which,  as  we  saw  in  the  previous  chapter,  had 
begun  to  flourish  even  in  the  unfavorable  times  of 
Nicholas,  now,  encouraged  by  the  liberal  Govern- 
ment, asserted  itself  more  and  more.  '  The  Gov- 
ernment is  favorably  inclined  towards  the  Jews; 
the  restrictive  laws  are  disregarded;  special  privi- 
leges are  given  to  the  educated;  is  it  not  possible 
that  final  emancipation  will  be  granted  the  Russian 
Jews?  The  Czar  has  liberated  the  serfs;  he  has 
the  welfare  of  his  lowest  subjects  at  heart;  he  recog- 
nizes the  value  of  his  Jewish  subjects;  his  generos- 
ity will  certainly  not  stop  here;  final  emancipation 
is  an  assured  fact.  Hence,  we  must  prepare  our- 
selves for  the  golden  future  before  us.  We  must, 
therefore,  take  advantage  of  the  educational  op- 
portunities offered  to  us;  we  must  get  out  of  our 
shell,  get  a  secular  education — in  a  word,  we  must 
become  Russians."  In  their  eagerness  for  Russi- 
fication,  a  great  many  of  the  Maskilim  turned  the 
cold  shoulder  to  Judaism,  violated  Jewish  customs, 
and  ridiculed  and  railed  at  the  Orthodox,  who  still 
clung  tenaciously  to  the  study  of  the  Talmud,  and 
refused  obstinately  to  participate  in  the  so-called 

44 


GORDON    IN    LITHUANIA 

emancipation  movement.  This  conduct  on  the  part 
of  the  Maskilim  made  them  still  more  obnoxious  to 
the  ultra-Orthodox,  both  Hasidim  and  Mitnagge- 
dim,  and  the  latter  fought  stubbornly  against  the 
innovations.  Had  the  Maskilim  taken  a  concili- 
atory attitude  towards  the  Orthodox,  their  opposi- 
tion would  not  have  been  so  pronounced.  As  it 
was,  they  were  filled  with  hatred  and  contempt  for 
the  "  Berliners,"  as  they  nicknamed  the  Maskilim, 
and  they  barricaded  themselves  behind  the  Talmud 
and  the  Yeshibot,  whither  they  sent  their  children 
to  counteract  the  influence  of  the  Maskilim. 

The  attitude  of  the  Orthodox  towards  higher 
secular  education  may  be  illustrated  by  the  follow- 
ing anecdote,  told  by  a  companion  of  his,  from  the 
life  of  Orshansky,  a  Talmudic  student,  who  had 
gone  to  Charkov  to  attend  the  University.  "  On  a 
winter  night  of  1864,  after  the  evening  prayer,  our 
teacher  entered  the  Yeshibah,  crestfallen,  sad,  and 
disconsolate.  Restlessly  he  walked  to  and  fro,  and 
sighed  continually.  Never  before  had  we  seen  our 
teacher  so  downhearted  and  sad;  but  we  did  not 
dare  ask  him  the  cause  of  it.  After  a  while  he 
turned  to  us,  and  said,  *  Have  you  heard  the  terrible 
misfortune  that  has  happened?  '  '  What  has  hap- 
pened, and  to  whom  ?  '  we  asked  tremblingly.  *  To 

45 


LEON   GORDON 

Elijah  Orshansky!'  'To  Orshansky!'  we  ex- 
claimed, jumping  up  from  our  seats.  '  Is  he  dead? 
Is  he  mortally  sick?  '  '  No,'  our  teacher  answered, 
4  but  he  is  taken  from  us  forever;  he  has  gone  to 
Charkov  to  the  University,  and  the  glory  of  Juda- 
ism is  departed  forever.'  *  From  the  Orthodox 
point  of  view,  the  attendance  of  a  Jewish  student 
at  the  University  was  a  calamity."  * 

Meanwhile,  struggling  Hebrew  literature  as- 
sumed a  new  form.  The  Maskilim,  bending  all 
their  energies  towards  the  enlightenment  of  the 
minds  of  their  Orthodox  brethren,  established  a 
press  as  a  means  for  propaganda.  In  1857  Ha- 
Maggid  was  founded  by  Silberman.  In  1860  the 
Karmel  began  to  appear  in  Wilna  under  the  editor- 

*  Another  anecdote  is  told  by  Gordon  himself  (Luah  Ahiasaf, 
1898,  pp.  81-91):  At  the  age  of  thirteen,  while  studying  the 
Talmud  one  day  in  the  house  of  a  well-known  Talmudist,  Gor- 
don brought  with  him  a  copy  of  a  Hebrew  poem  written  by 
his  brother-in-law,  Michael  Gordon.  The  Talmudist  surprised 
him  while  in  the  act  of  reading  it.  "  What  have  you  there  ?  " 
asked  the  zealot,  and  seized  the  paper.  Seeing  the  poem,  he 
struck  the  boy  on  the  cheek  twice,  shouting:  "  You  good-for- 
nothing!  How  dare  you  bring  such  an  abomination  into  my 
house !  "  Gordon  learned  later  on  from  his  teacher  that  that 
very  Talmudist  had  had  his  eye  on  him  (Gordon)  with  a  view  to 
giving  him  his  daughter  in  marriage,  but  the  fatal  poem  de- 
stroyed all  his  chances,  for  which,  Gordon  adds,  he  was  ex- 
tremely grateful  to  the  poem. 

46 


GORDON   IN   LITHUANIA 

ship  of  Samuel  Joseph  Fuenn;  in  1861  the  first 
issue  of  Ha-Meliz  came  out  in  Odessa,  edited  by 
Alexander  Zederbaum,  and  in  1862  Ha-Zefirah,  by 
Slonimsky.  Ha-Maggid  was  at  first  merely  a 
newspaper,  the  editor  was  a  man  of  mediocre 
ability,  who  could  not  even  write  Hebrew  correctly, 
and  aimed  at  nothing  higher  than  telling  the  news 
of  the  world.  All  the  contributors  to  this  paper 
were  literary  dilettanti,  who  liked  to  see  their 
names  in  print,  and  reported,  in  grandiloquent 
style,  the  petty  occurrences  in  their  respective 
towns.88  But  the  Karmel,  the  Meliz  and  the  Zefi- 
rah  were  originally  founded  for  the  purpose  of 
spreading  the  Haskalah  among  the  people,  and 
they  not  only  surpassed  Ha-Maggid  in  language 
and  style,  but  also  in  matter.  Yet  Ha-Maggid  had 
accomplished  one  great  good.  It  had  created  a 
class  of  readers.  And  now,  when  the  new  papers 
appeared,  the  readers  created  by  Ha-Maggid  re- 
ceived them  with  delight.  Around  these  three  pa- 
pers gathered  all  the  Hebrew  writers  that  felt 
themselves  called  upon  to  speak  to  their  people  in 
behalf  of  the  Haskalah.  Foremost  among  these 
young  writers,  the  "  Lion  of  the  Company,"  as  he 
was  styled,  was  Leon,  or  Jehudah  Lob  Gordon. 
The  destined  leader  of  the  Haskalah  was  born 
47 


LEON   GORDON 

in  Wilna,  Thursday,  December  7,  1830  (21  Kis- 
lew,  5591)-*  The  son  of  a  well-to-do  inn-keeper, 
he  spent  his  young  days  in  plenty,  even  in  opulence ; 
and  as  he  showed  marked  ability,  his  ambitious 
father  intended  him  for  the  Rabbinate,  and  gave 
him  the  usual  Rabbinical  education.  As  good  luck 
would  have  it,  his  teacher,  Rabbi  Lippman,  was  not 
of  the  ordinary  run  of  Melammedim.  He  had 
been,  in  his  younger  days,  a  disciple  of  Elijah 
Wilna,  and  later  of  Rabbi  Hayyim,  of  Volozin, 
and  had  imbibed  their  critical  spirit,  and  adopted 

*  According  to  Gordon  himself  (in  his  manuscript  Al-Nehar 
Kebar)  his  father  Asher  (1790-1855)  took  the  surname  Gordon 
in  1818,  when,  by  order  of  the  Government,  every  Jew  was 
compelled  to  adopt  a  family  name.  It  came  to  him  from  his 
mother's  side;  though  H.  N.  Steinschneider  traces  the  direct 
genealogy  of  the  name  several  generations  back  on  his  father's 
side.  (See  Ha-Meliz,  1902,  nos.  218  and  241.)  "The  name  of 
Gordon  is  common  in  Scotland  and  France,  the  Scotch  Gordons 
dating  their  ancestry  back  to  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century. 
The  etymology  of  the  word  is  uncertain,  some  tracing  it  to 
Gordonia,  a  city  in  Macedon ;  others  to  gore-down,  referring  to 
a  yeoman,  Adam,  who,  in  the  reign  of  Malcolm  III.,  killed  a 
wild  boar  that  was  the  terror  of  the  country,  in  commemoration 
of  which  he  was  knighted,  and  allowed  to  assume  the  surname 
of  Goredown.  The  name  is  common  in  Russia,  possibly  through 
the  Scottish  Gordons  of  Aberdeen,  who  settled  in  Russia  and  in 
Poland  in  the  seventeenth  century,  some  of  whom  held  important 
commissions  in  the  Russian  army  and  navy"  ("Notes  and 
Queries,"  9th  series,  vol.  ix).  To  trace  Gordon  from  Grodno 
or  Jordan  is  too  far-fetched. 

48 


GORDON   IN   LITHUANIA 

their  methods  of  education.  He  taught  his  young 
pupil  first  the  Pentateuch  with  a  simple  commen- 
tary, then  the  Prophets  in  order,  and  gave  him  in- 
struction also  in  grammar.  After  he  had  mastered 
the  Bible,  his  teacher  introduced  him  to  the  Tal- 
mud, which  he  had  nearly  completed  at  the  age  of 
fifteen.29  "  At  this  time,"  to  use  his  own  words, 
"  my  eyes  were  opened,  to  realize  that  this  [the 
study  of  the  Talmud]  was  not  the  way  to  lead  us 
to  our  goal.  I  realized  that  I  was  an  Asiatic  in 

the  heart  of  enlightened  Europe Then  I 

began  to  study  Hebrew  grammar,  and  the  Russian, 
Polish,  German,  and  French  languages,  and  other 
branches  of  knowledge,  without  the  help  of  a 
teacher."  He  was  moved  to  the  new  course  by 
the  spirit  of  the  Haskalah,  which  was  very  strong 
in  Wilna,  the  metropolis  of  Jewish  learning.  Be- 
sides, he  was  perhaps  indirectly  influenced  by  his 
brother-in-law,  Michael  Gordon,31  a  Maskil  and  a 
Yiddish  poet.  Of  his  relations  to  the  latter,  he 
says:  "  His  residence  among  us,  ipso  facto,  made 
me  afterwards  join  the  Maskilim,  who  knew  and 
used  to  visit  him.  He,  on  the  contrary,  was  jealous 
of  me  personally,  and  endeavored  to  dissuade  me 
from  my  ambition  of  becoming  a  Hebrew  poet." 
About  this  time  his  father  grew  poor,  and  young 

49 


LEON   GORDON 

Gordon  was  thrown  on  his  own  resources;  and 
after  two  years'  preparation  and  study  of  Russian 
literature  and  other  branches,  he  obtained,  in  1853, 
an  appointment  as  teacher  of  Jewish  children  in  the 
Government  school  of  Poniviez,  Kovno,  and  was 
perforce  thrown  into  the  conflict  between  the 
Haskalah  and  Orthodoxy. 

As  was  intimated  above,  the  Jews  looked  with 
distrust  upon  everything  undertaken  by  Nicholas  I. 
with  reference  to  themselves,  and  they  viewed  with 
especial  apprehension  the  numerous  schools  the 
Czar  had  established  for  Jewish  children,  on  ac- 
count of  Nicholas's  well-known  proselytizing  de- 
signs. The  teachers  of  these  Government  schools 
were  regarded  by  the  multitude  as  aiders  and  abet- 
tors in  the  conspiracy  of  conversion.  Hence  Gor- 
don's accepting  a  position  as  teacher  in  a  Govern- 
ment school  was  considered  tantamount  to  a  chal- 
lenge of  war,  and  Gordon  himself  threw  down  the 
gauntlet.  In  the  nineteen  years  he  taught  school 
(1853-1861  in  Poniviez;  1861-1865  m  Shavly, 
and  1865-1872  as  curator,  or  school  supervisor,  in 
Tels)  he  never  flinched  from  his  duty,  though  res- 
idence in  the  small  towns  was  repugnant  to  him. 
In  a  letter  written  April  13,  1866,  he  says: 

60 


GORDON   IN    LITHUANIA 

"  Both  Poniviez  and  Tels  are  small  towns,  mere  clusters  of 
huts,  in  which  you  can  find  neither  writers  nor  scholars,  nor  even 
intelligent  people.  The  inhabitants  are  mostly  given  to  business, 
and  absorbed  in  superstition ;  all  are  sunk  in  a  lethargy  which 
no  spirit  of  the  time  can  dispel.  And  should  a  man  with  open 
eyes  chance  among  them,  he  will  find  no  rest ;  the  fanatics  em- 
bitter his  life."33 

Again,  in  a  letter  of  March  16,  1867,  he  writes: 

"The  people  here  may  be  divided  into  four  classes:  a)  learned 
idiots,  oxen  that  lick  the  grass  on  one  side  of  the  mountain,  not 
knowing  that  a  green,  pleasant  field  is  stretched  out  on  the  other 
side;  b)  pious  idiots,  who  observe  all  the  minutiae  of  the  law 
without  studying  them;  c)  intelligent  idiots,  who  allow  them- 
selves a  certain  latitude  in  their  religious  life,  because  they  have 
heard  somebody  say  that  it  is  permitted;  and  d)  plain  idiots."* 

No  wonder  that  such  an  environment  was  not 
attractive  to  a  man  of  Gordon's  temperament. 
Moreover,  the  obscurantists  of  Tels  were  not 
pleased  with  the  conduct  of  his  school,  because  he 
made  the  children  speak  Russian,  and  opened  a 
department  for  girls !  They  denounced  him  to  the 
director,  curator,  governor,  and  governor-general, 
for  spreading  atheism  among  their  children,  and 
similar  charges.  The  fanatics  were  desperate, 
because  they  felt  that  they  were  powerless  to  cope 
with  the  Haskalah.35  Gordon,  however,  persisted 

51 


LEON    GORDON 

in  his  course,  undaunted  by  the  attacks  of  his  ene- 
mies, and  he  succeeded  in  lifting  the  load  of  super- 
stition from  the  shoulders  of  the  younger  genera- 
tion, with  whom  he  came  in  immediate  contact. 

But  Gordon  was  not  satisfied  with  this  activity 
in  a  narrow  sphere.  He  had  a  message  to  the 
whole  people,  and  he  threw  himself  heart  and  soul 
into  the  work  before  him.  The  press,  which  had 
been  organized  lately,  particularly  the  Karmel  and 
the  Meliz,  raised  the  new  literature  at  one  bound 
from  an  undefined,  lifeless  mass  into  a  living,  com- 
pact organism.  The  new  literature  had  a  mission, 
to  enlighten  the  people  and  improve  their  condi- 
tion. All  the  Maskilim  flocked  about  the  two 
papers,  and  Gordon,  in  particular,  was  welcomed 
with  open  arms.  His  fame  was  spreading.  His 
first  poetic  work,  Ahabat  David  u-Michal,  which 
appeared  in  1857,  placed  him  at  once  at  the  head 
of  the  new  literature.  He  was  recognized  as  the 
great  poet  of  whom  the  people  were  deeply  in 
need.  His  vast,  comprehensive  store  of  knowledge 
of  the  Hebrew  literature  of  all  times  marked  him 
as  a  scholar,  and  his  keen,  incisive  style,  and  the 
purity  and  force  of  his  diction,  became  a  subject  of 
comment  and  imitation.  "  The  Polish  Jews  are 
exceedingly  fond  of  lofty  rhetoric  and  elevated 

52 


GORDON    IN    LITHUANIA 

style,  noble  expressions  and  strong  enthusiasm ;  for 
this  reason  the  young  generation,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  admired  Schiller  so 
much."  8  Gordon  possessed  the  above  characteris- 
tics in  an  eminent  degree.  He  was,  therefore, 
easily  recognized  as  the  leader  of  the  new  litera- 
ture. 

He  aimed  chiefly  at  purifying  Judaism,  at  re- 
moving the  mass  of  superstitious  practices  that 
clogged  the  development  of  Russian  Jews  along  the 
line  of  progress,  material  and  intellectual. 

"  Our  material  improvement  depends  upon  religious  reform," 
he  says.  "  Our  people  live  on  air ;  the  new  generation  is  brought 
up  in  the  Heder  under  idiotic  and  ignorant  teachers;  the  Rabbis 
busy  themselves  with  hairsplitting  studies  that  are  absolutely 
worthless,  and  pay  no  regard  whatever  to  the  needs  of  the  people. 
Shall  such  conditions  remain  as  they  are?  Do  they  need  no 
improvement?  ....  We  must  not  stand  by  idle!  It  is  the  duty 
of  every  one  that  has  the  interests  of  his  people  at  heart  to  fight 
against  such  conditions.  All  the  '  fences  around  the  law '  might 
have  been  necessary  at  the  time  they  were  instituted,  but  they 
aie  superfluous  to-day.  I  do  not  believe  in  destroying  all  mem- 
ories of  the  past  with  which  the  life  of  our  people  is  bound  up, 
or  in  giving  up  hope  of  a  future.  ...  I  seek  the  golden  mean: 
to  unite  pure  faith  with  reason  and  the  needs  of  the  time.  Only 
by  an  orderly  system  of  education,  combining  secular  knowledge 
with  Judaism  and  the  love  of  our  people,  can  we  prepare  our- 
selves for  better  days."  * 

53 


LEON   GORDON 

"  Faith  not  based  on  understanding  is  worse  than  atheism. 
Every  day  you  reiterate  your  belief  in  the  coming  of  the  Mes- 
siah; but  you  that  await  his  miraculous  arrival  daily,  and  the 
German  reformers  that  disregard  the  prayer  for  his  advent,  alike 
deny  the  great  principle.  Miracles  do  not  happen  every  day. 
The  recital  of  the  prayer  is  merely  mechanical;  you  don't  think 
of  what  you  say.  Suppose  the  Messiah  does  come;  what  good 
can  he  expect  from  you  ?  From  among  the  educated  Jews  he  can 
appoint  his  officers,  physicians,  secretaries,  etc.  But  what  can 
you  accomplish  with  your  Pilpulistic  arguments,  and  the  study 
of  the  Maharshah?  Will  you  become  the  lawgivers,  and  re- 
establish the  '  four  corporal '  and  other  punishments,  for  the 
least  violation  of  the  most  insignificant  practices?  Will  not  other 
nations  rise  against  you  and  destroy  you  in  one  day?  ....  No, 
my  friends,  you  must  prepare  the  younger  generation  for  the 
coming  of  the  Messiah,  which,  however,  can  happen  only  in  a 
natural  way.  You  must  change  your  system  of  education.  Give 
the  intelligent  that  useful  education  in  secular  knowledge  which 
a  modern  man  must  possess.  Teach  trades  and  occupations  to 
those  who  are  not  capable  of  study.  Teach  our  merchants  to  be 
scrupulously  honest  in  their  dealings  both  with  Jews  and  non- 
Jews;  institute  order  in  the  conduct  of  your  communal  affairs; 
eradicate  from  the  hearts  of  the  young  the  hatred  towards  other 
religions  and  their  adherents.  Then  the  hope  of  Israel  may  be 
realized;  then  the  world  will  see  that  we  are  not  opposed  to 
knowledge,  and  freedom  will  be  given  to  us  to  develop  along 
the  lines  of  our  own  genius,  and  we  shall  be  able  to  enrich  all 
mankind,  by  bringing  into  play  the  gifts  of  the  intellect  with 
which  God  has  endowed  us.  Only  by  good  deeds  can  we  gain 
the  friendship  of  mankind."  w 

54 


GORDON   IN   LITHUANIA 

Such  were  the  sentiments  and  ideas  of  Gordon. 
Couched  in  the  forcible  and  impressive  style  he  was 
master  of,  they  could  not  but  impress  his  readers. 
This  note  of  conciliation  and  petition  is  characteris- 
tic of  Gordon.  Nevertheless,  he  was  abused  by 
his  opponents,  especially  by  a  certain  Moses  David 
Wolfsohn  (supposed  to  be  Zechariah  Joseph  Stern, 
Rabbi  of  Shavly)  in  the  periodical  Ha-Lebanon, 
who  heaped  upon  him  personally  the  most  disgrace- 
ful epithets.  Gordon  scorned  such  methods  of 
criticism.  "  Let  our  writing  be  based  on  absolute 
truth,  and  we  shall  succeed.  Truth  is  the  most 
dangerous  weapon  against  falsehood."  He  ig- 
nored the  slander  of  the  critic.  Then  the  enemies 
of  the  Haskalah  issued  a  pamphlet,  Milhamah  be- 
Shalom,  directed  against  him  and  Lilienblum,  to 
which  they  responded  in  another  pamphlet,  Deme 
Milhamah  be-Shalom  (1870).  They  denied  the 
accusation  that  their  main  object  was  to  overthrow 
the  Rabbinate,  and  thus  destroy  Judaism.  No,  all 
they  wanted  was  to  force  reforms  upon  them,  prov- 
ing at  the  same  time  the  crying  need  of  reform  in 
Rabbinical  Judaism. 

His  attitude  towards  the  Rabbis  is  one  of  bitter 
antagonism.  He  can  never  forgive  them  for  their 
indifference  towards  the  needs  of  the  time,  and 

55 


LEON    GORDON 

their  obstinate  refusal  of  any  reforms  whatever, 
and  he  lays  all  the  misfortune  of  the  Jews  and  their 
ignorance  of  the  world  at  the  door  of  the  Rabbis. 
In  the  heat  of  his  war  upon  ignorance,  he  uses  the 
shafts  of  his  sarcasm  unsparingly  against  Rabbis 
and  Talmudic  teachers,  the  latter  the  product  of 
the  former.  Thus,  for  instance,  in  his  satire  Bar- 
burim  Abusim,  he  ridicules  the  tendencies  of  the 
Rabbis  to  interpret  the  ritual  laws  in  the  most  rig- 
orous sense.  A  poor  woman  bought  two  turkeys  in 
the  winter,  and  pampered  them  up  to  the  time  of 
Pesah,  and  thought  with  delight  of  the  good  times 
she  and  her  numerous  family  would  have  during 
the  festival  week;  how  she  would  sell  part  of  the 
meat  to  her  rich  neighbor,  and  with  the  proceeds 
buy  Mazzot  and  wine  for  her  family,  and  how  she 
would  use  the  unsold  part  for  her  children,  and 
what  a  general  good  time  they  would  have.  The 
turkeys  were  slaughtered  accordingly  on  Pesah  eve. 
Unfortunately,  a  red  spot  was  found  on  the  oesoph- 
agus of  each  bird.  Frightened,  she  ran  to  the 
Rabbi.  Although  there  was  no  blood  or  any  per- 
foration, the  Rabbi  declared  them  Trefah,  because 
"  the  (Esophagus  may  have  been  perforated  and 
may  have  healed  ";  and  the  poor  woman  remained 
without  food  for  the  holidays.  The  poet  consoles 

56 


GORDON   IN   LITHUANIA 

her  in  her  misfortune  caused  by  the  "  merciless- 
ness  of  the  Rabbis,"  with  the  words:  "  You  must 
not  despair,  poor  woman !  Jews  are  charitable ; 
you  can  support  yourself  by  begging." 

Again,  he  ridicules  the  Rabbis  for  their  par- 
tiality in  interpreting  the  laws  in  their  own  favor. 
Thus,  in  Ha-Peh  she-Osar  hu  ha-Peh  she-Hittir*1 
he  tells  the  following  anecdote :  A  crime  was  com- 
mitted by  a  Jewish  young  man — he  violated  the 
Sabbath  by  carrying  a  watch  in  his  vest-pocket. 
The  Rabbi  was  incensed  at  the  transgressor,  when 
he  heard  of  it.  "  A  watch  is  a  vessel,"  he  said, 
"  and  must  not  be  carried  on  Sabbath."  He  or- 
dered the  culprit  before  him  for  punishment,  as  a 
warning  to  other  transgressors.  When  the  sinner 
appeared,  he  beheld  his  own  son.  The  Rabbi 
stroked  his  beard  for  some  time,  and  then  said: 
'  Well,  on  the  other  hand,  a  watch  is  also  an  orna- 
ment, and  it  is  therefore  permitted  to  carry  it  on 
Sabbath."  The  culprit  was  released. 

In  his  novelette,  Kaf  Regel  Egel,48  he  tells  of  a 
Rabbi  who,  on  a  certain  Sabbath  morning,  declared 
all  the  meat  Trefah  at  the  instigation  of  his  wife, 
incensed  because  she  had  not  succeeded  in  getting 
the  portion  of  veal  she  liked.  Exaggerated  and 
ridiculous  as  the  above-quoted  stories  seem  to  be, 

57 


LEON    GORDON 

there  is  a  great  deal  of  truth  in  them.  The  Rab- 
bis insisted  upon  the  observance  of  the  most  trifling 
minutiae  of  the  law,  and  caused  a  great  deal  of  in- 
convenience and  discomfort  by  their  rigorous  de- 
cisions. Still,  Gordon's  charges  of  partiality  in 
judgment,  and  interpretation  of  the  law  for  selfish 
ends,  are  unjust.  The  Rabbis,  narrow-minded  and 
unyielding  with  regard  to  the  law,  were  the  most 
scrupulous  of  men.  Whatever  may  be  said  against 
them,  they  were  sincere  and  honest.  Of  course, 
the  satirist,  for  the  purpose  of  showing  to  what 
absurd  lengths  stickling  for  the  letter  of  the  law 
will  lead,  selected  the  most  extreme  and  impossible 
cases ;  but  they  must  not  be  taken  as  characteristic. 
Gordon  is  likewise  unjust  in  holding  the  Rabbis 
responsible  for  the  misfortune  of  the  Jews. 

It  is  undoubtedly  true  that,  had  the  Rabbis  been 
men  of  a  more  practical  turn  of  mind,  and  of  a 
character  ready  to  steer  with  the  wind,  Judaism 
would  have  been  freed  from  some  of  its  objection- 
able features,  the  result  of  isolation.  But,  then,  the 
Rabbis  themselves  were  the  product  of  the  his- 
torical forces  that  have  made  Judaism  what  it  is. 
They  were  the  result  rather  than  the  cause  of  Jew- 
ish isolation.  After  all,  what  would  have  become 
of  Judaism,  during  so  many  ages  of  persecution, 

58 


GORDON   IN   LITHUANIA 

had  the  Rabbis  been  more  yielding,  and  removed 
the  fences  from  around  the  law?  With  the  least 
breath  of  freedom,  many  Jews  were  ready  to  throw 
off  the  restraints  Judaism  placed  upon  them  and 
become  traitors  to  their  brethren.  Could  the 
Rabbis  have  sanctioned  such  action  ?  Gordon  him- 
self acknowledged  it.  In  an  undated  letter  he 
says :  ** 

"  After  all,  the  complaints  of  the  ultra-Orthodox  against  the 
Haskalah  and  the  Maskilim  are  not  without  ground,  though  not 
for  the  reasons  assigned  by  them.  To  our  sorrow  we  must  re- 
alize that  the  culture  we  are  striving  after  will  make  us  drink 
gall,  and  produce  thistles  instead  of  flowers.  We  lament,  not 
because  of  the  customs  neglected,  or  the  '  fences '  broken  down, 
or  the  burden  of  practices  and  observances  thrown  off;  but  be- 
cause the  unruly  waters  have  reached  to  the  very  soul  of  our 
religion;  and  a  sharp  sword  lies  at  the  very  throat  of  our  faith 
and  its  existence.  A  true  Haskalah,  like  that  of  Saadia,  Maimoni- 
des,  and  Mendelssohn,  is  very  scarce  among  us;  an  imaginary, 
destructive  Haskalah  prevails.  The  Maskilim  have  taken  the 
shell  of  civilization  and  dressed  themselves  in  it  for  appearances 
sake;  but  the  kernel  they  have  thrown  away.  They  combine  the 
unpleasant  traits  of  the  places  they  left  and  of  those  whither 
they  go;  they  are  not  particular  about  religious  commandments, 
and  have  no  scruples  about  adopting  even  the  practices  that 
have  given  Israel  his  unenviable  reputation  among  the  Gentiles. 
The  Maskilim  of  the  better  sort  are  truly  educated  men,  but 
they  are  traitors,  and  they  are  ashamed  of  their  race." 

59 


LEON    GORDON 

Were  not  the  Rabbis  justified  in  opposing  a 
movement  that  tended  to  produce  such  a  progeny  ? 

Gordon,  however,  had  a  theory  of  his  own, 
founded  on  an  historical  basis,  with  regard  to  the 
tendency  to  go  to  extremes.  He  says :  ** 

"  The  struggle  between  the  old  and  the  new  that  is  going 
on  in  our  midst  now  is  the  result  of  a  natural  development.  A 
person  accustomed  to  a  certain  line  of  conduct,  or  given  to  one 
extreme,  who  desires  to  habituate  himself  to  the  mean,  goes  first 
to  the  opposite  extreme,  until  the  two  extremes  are  united,  and 
he  returns  to  the  golden  mean  [Maimonides].  The  tendency  of 
the  present  generation  towards  the  extreme  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion is  a  natural  result  of  the  former  tendency  towards  the  ex- 
treme of  religiousness,  and  there  is  hope  that  in  the  end  the 
extremists  will  return  and  meet  on  common  ground.  Our  religion 
even  in  its  first,  its  Mosaic,  form  did  not  strike  root  in  the  hearts 
of  our  people  in  one  generation.  '  The  Book  and  the  Sword 
were  always  wrapped  together.'  Many  generations  and  cen- 
turies passed,  and  not  without  wars  and  confusion,  before  Israel 
removed  the  strange  gods  from  his  midst.  Many  generations  and 
centuries  passed  also  after  that,  not  without  schisms  and  dissen- 
sions, until  the  Mosaic  became  the  Jewish  religion,  and  until  the 
Rabbinic  law  spread  and  became  an  integral  part  of  Judaism. 
We  who  were  born  many  ages  after  these  struggles  and  revolu- 
tions, and  who  try  to  lead  a  peaceful  life,  are  disturbed  when 
we  see  that  the  age  of  excommunication  has  returned,  and  the 
struggle  has  been  renewed.  The  days  of  disorder  may  be  pro- 
longed ;  but  the  spirit  of  God,  which  has  been  with  us  ever  since 
the  beginning  of  our  history,  will  finally  produce  a  substance 

60 


GORDON   IN    LITHUANIA 

solid  and  perfect  out  of  these  mixed  elements.  The  useless  in- 
gredients will  disappear,  and  the  solid  and  living  matter  will 
survive,  and  form  the  foundation  of  the  new,  improved  world." 

But  in  order  to  bring  about  the  "  golden  mean  " 
it  was  necessary  first  to  combat  superstition  and 
ignorance,  to  remove  the  weeds  that  had  grown  all 
over  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord,  and  which  the 
Rabbis  guarded  as  carefully  as  though  they  formed 
part  and  parcel  of  the  vineyard.  Hence  his  fight 
against  the  Rabbis.  When  the  opposite  tendency 
manifested  itself,  Gordon  was  again  in  the  van  to 
combat  it,  too,  in  order  to  prepare  the  way  for  the 
golden  mean  in  the  end. 


61 


CHAPTER  III 

GORDON  IN  ST.  PETERSBURG 

The  decade  from  1860-1870  was  momentous  in 
the  development  of  the  Haskalah,  and  its  cham- 
pions carried  the  day.  The  new  liberal  policy  of 
the  Government  with  regard  to  the  Jews,  and  the 
constant  call  of  the  Maskilim  upon  their  brethren, 
to  rise  from  their  long  sleep,  had  helped,  to  a  con- 
siderable extent,  to  Europeanize  the  Russian  Jews. 
The  spirit  of  the  West  was  wafted  even  into  the 
Yeshibot,  the  bulwark  of  Rabbinism,  and  removed 
thence  the  most  promising  Talmudic  students. 
Ha-Meliz  and  Ha-Zefirah,  through  their  columns 
filled  with  the  masterly  feuilletons  of  Gordon  as 
well  as  his  more  serious  articles,  and  those  of  his 
fellow-champions,  opened  their  eyes. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  in  order  to  understand 
the  great  influence  these  papers  wielded,  especially 
upon  the  Talmudic  students,  that  any  books  except 
the  Codes  and  the  folio  volumes  of  the  Talmud, 
were  strictly  interdicted  in  the  Yeshibot.  The  in- 
terdict sufficed  to  invest  all  other  literature  with 


GORDON    IN    ST.    PETERSBURG 

heightened  charm.  Stolen  waters  taste  sweet.  The 
above  papers  were  smuggled  into  the  Rabbinical 
schools,  and  their  contents  were  eagerly  absorbed. 
A  new  world  was  presented  to  the  Talmudic  stu- 
dents— a  world  of  intellect  pictured  in  the  most 
glowing  colors.  Eager  for  information  as  most  of 
them  were,  this  presentation  of  an  unlimited  sphere 
of  knowledge  outside  of  the  Talmud  inflamed  their 
imagination,  and  they  began  to  study  secular  sub- 
jects. In  the  dead  of  night,  when  all  the  students 
and  the  proctors  had  retired  to  rest,  the  newly- 
awakened  spirits  would  steal  into  the  women's  di- 
vision of  the  synagogue,  and  there,  under  the  flick- 
ering light  of  a  wax  candle,  would  pore  over  Ha- 
Meliz  and  Ha-Zefirah,  a  Hebrew  grammar,  or  a 
Russian  and  German  book,  till  the  footsteps  of  the 
early  risers  would  warn  them  that  dawn  was  near, 
and  they  would  then  retire  to  their  beds  on  the 
benches  of  the  synagogue,  and  rise  with  the  others 
as  if  nothing  had  happened.  The  choicer  spirits, 
who  could  be  trusted,  would  communicate  with 
each  other,  and  secret  societies  of  the  Maskilim 
were  organized.  In  the  daytime,  in  order  to 
avoid  suspicion,  they  would  rock  diligently  over 
their  folio  volumes,  to  the  usual  sing-song,  thinking 
perhaps  in  the  meantime  of  some  poem  or  satire  of 


LEON   GORDON 

Gordon's  that  had  appeared  lately  in  one  of  the 
periodicals,  and  they  would  chuckle  with  secret 
satisfaction  at  the  thought  of  the  wry  face  the 
superintendent  would  make,  were  he  to  know  in 
what  studies  they  had  indulged  the  previous  night. 
Not  infrequently  the  big  folio  volume  served  as  a 
receptacle  for  some  interdicted  little  book  in  Rus- 
sian or  German,  which  the  student  perused  under 
the  cloak  of  Talmud  study. 

These  subterfuges  would  be  practised  for  a  time, 
until  some  fine  day  the  Yeshibah  would  be  startled 
by  the  announcement  that  the  best  and  most  dili- 
gent "  arm-Bahur  "  had  become  a  student  of  the 
Gymnasium.  A  search  in  all  the  desks  for  danger- 
ous books  would  then  follow ;  some  students  would 
save  themselves  by  making  away  with  the  inter- 
dicted books  in  their  possession.  Those  who  were 
discovered  with  anything  that  savored  of  the  Has- 
kalah  would  be  expelled  from  the  school,  and  were 
thus,  ipso  facto,  thrown,  as  it  were,  into  the  ranks 
of  the  Maskilim.  The  Talmudic  students'  eager 
perusal  of  Ha-Meliz  taught  them  Hebrew,  and 
not  a  few  of  these  exiled  Talmudists  became  good 
writers  later  on,  and  worked  for  the  spread  of  the 
Haskalah. 

In  1869  a  new  champion  of  the  cause  of  the 
64 


GORDON   IN   ST.    PETERSBURG 

Haskalah  appeared  in  the  shape  of  Ha-Shahar,  a 
monthly  by  Peter  Smolensky.  The  editor  was  a 
man  of  pronounced  literary  ability,  with  a  ready 
pen  and  an  incisive  mind ;  above  all,  he  was  a  fear- 
less, independent  thinker.  He  aimed  at  making 
his  magazine  a  purely  literary  organ,  in  the  Euro- 
pean sense.  Smolensky  possessed  a  winning  per- 
sonality, and  succeeded  in  gathering  around  his 
magazine  the  most  talented  Hebrew  writers.  The 
literary  character  of  Ha-Shahar  was  dignified.  It 
contained  scientific  articles  full  of  interest  and 
instruction.  The  contributors  to  its  columns 
preached  reforms  in  Judaism,  and  called  upon  their 
people  "  to  leave  the  intellectual  Ghetto  and  par- 
ticipate in  universal  culture."  Its  popularity  was 
immense.  Every  new  issue  was  anticipated  with 
eagerness  and  impatience,  and  read  and  re-read, 
until  its  contents  were  known  almost  by  heart. 
This  magazine  also  was  circulated  among  the  Tal- 
mud students,  and  did  even  more  effective  work 
among  them  than  the  weeklies  mentioned  above. 

Gordon,  recognizing  the  beneficent  influence  of 
Ha-Shahar,  affiliated  himself  with  it  from  its  very 
beginning.  He  contributed  willingly,  even  eagerly, 
his  best  and  longest  poems  to  its  columns,  which 
tended  to  make  Ha-Shahar  still  more  popular.  His 

65 


LEON    GORDON 

contributions  were  all  freewill  offerings.  He 
wrote  in  order  to  rouse  his  people  to  the  reality 
of  modern  life,  and  Ha-Shahar  was  a  worthy  ve- 
hicle for  his  thoughts. 

Ha-Shahar  marked  a  new  departure  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  Haskalah.  The  decade  from 
1860  to  1870,  as  we  have  shown,  had  seen  the  new 
awakening.  In  a  letter  written  in  1864,  Gordon 
says: 

"  In  the  majority  of  Jewish  cities  our  brethren  are  still  walking 
in  darkness,  but  withal  the  rays  of  the  sun  are  beginning  to  pene- 
trate among  them,  too.  In  1850  I  remember  a  certain  Jewish 
student  who  did  not  dare  walk  through  the  streets  in  his  uni- 
form. He  would  leave  it  with  the  janitor  of  the  Gymnasium,  to 
which  he  used  to  come  in  his  '  Kosher '  garments  and  long  ear- 
locks,  and  only  when  he  was  safe  inside  the  Gymnasium  building 
would  he  comb  his  hair,  put  his  locks  behind  his  ears,  don  his 
uniform,  and  become  another  man.  To-day  you  will  find  many  a 
Jewish  youth  writing  good  Russian,  or  German,  or  French — all 
the  product  of  the  last  ten  years."  ** 

By  1870  the  number  of  Europeanized  Jews  was 
considerably  augmented.  Unfortunately,  the  tide 
of  reform  once  having  set  in,  it  could  not  be 
stemmed  easily.  The  Europeanized  Jews,  in  their 
eagerness  to  become  so,  neglected  and  endeavored 
to  forget  their  Judaism.  The  young  generation, 
getting  a  thoroughly  Russian  education,  no  longer 


GORDON   IN   ST.    PETERSBURG 

studied  Hebrew;  and  the  true  Maskilim  realized, 
with  alarm,  that  their  efforts  to  wean  the  youth 
from  the  useless  Rabbinical  studies,  had  weaned 
them  from  Judaism  as  well.  Gordon  and  Smolen- 
sky  appreciated  the  danger  and  undertook  to  cope 
with  it.  Both  directed  their  efforts  towards  bring- 
ing the  young,  extreme  Maskilim  back  into  the 
fold.  They  endeavored  to  unite  Jewish  feeling 
with  European  culture;  "  or,  in  the  words  of  Gor- 
don, unite  a  "  Jewish  heart  with  a  human  head." 
Smolensky,  writing  Hebrew  only,  began  to  preach 
nationalism,  an  ideal  that  appealed  strongly  to  the 
old  as  well  as  the  young  generation.  Gordon,  on 
the  other  hand,  when  writing  Hebrew  never  spared 
his  people.  "  I  think  it  harmful  and  dangerous  to 
flatter  my  people  when  I  write  Hebrew,"  he  said. 
He  always  called  attention  to  faults,  abuses,  and 
bad  practices.  It  may  safely  be  said  that  the  people 
like  censure  when  inflicted  skilfully  and  cleverly. 
But  Gordon,  in  order  to  reach  the  Russianized 
Jews  that  read  Hebrew  no  longer,  wrote  in  Rus- 
sian also.  In  this  case,  however,  his  policy  was  dif- 
ferent. Here  he  tried  to  show  the  nobility  of  Ju- 
daism, and  the  purity  of  motive  underlying  it.  He 
defended  his  people  against  all  false  allegations 
and  accusations,  and  upheld  the  dignity  of  the  Jew- 

67 


LEON    GORDON 

ish  character.     In  a  letter  to  Frishman    (May, 
1885),  he  says: 

"  You  know  that  besides  my  Hebrew  writings  I  wrote  a  great 
deal  in  Russian,  too.  In  the  Russian  articles,  whenever  I  touched 
upon  the  Jewish  question,  I  was  very  careful  not  to  criticise  my 
people,  in  order  not  to  give  our  enemies  the  least  pretext.  I  look 
upon  my  quarrel  with  my  own  people  as  a  family  affair,  in 
which  no  outsider  should  interfere.  On  the  other  hand,  in  my 
Russian  writings  I  always  defend  our  people,  even  to  the  extent 
of  calling  down  upon  myself  the  wrath  of  the  anti-Semites,  as 
in  my  polemic  with  Brafman  in  the  Golos  in  1876,  and  with 
the  Golos  itself,  in  1872.  I  even  heard  that  many  of  the  upper 
classes  with  whom  I  came  in  contact  wondered  whether  I  was 
really  an  enlightened  man  or  a  fanatic  like  others."  ** 

Such  a  double  policy  may  prove  dangerous;  by 
duplicity  a  man  may  lose  both  sides.  But  Gordon's 
motives  were  too  pure,  too  unselfish  to  be  suspected. 
The  Orthodox  were  grateful  to  him  for  defending 
their  cause,  and,  by  appealing  to  their  pride,  he  in- 
spired his  Russianized  Jewish  readers  with  feelings 
of  love  and  loyalty  to  their  brethren. 

A  new  field  of  activity  presented  itself  to  Gor- 
don, when,  in  1872,  he  was  called  to  St.  Petersburg 
to  take  the  office  of  Secretary  of  the  Jewish  Com- 
munity, and  of  the  Society  for  the  Spread  of  the 
Haskalah.  The  Jewish  community  in  St.  Peters- 
burg was  one  of  the  largest  in  the  Empire,  but  be- 

68 


GORDON    IN    ST.    PETERSBURG 

fore  Gordon's  arrival,  owing  to  its  lack  of  organ- 
ization, its  affairs  were  in  a  state  of  confusion.  The 
communal  board  had  charge  of  all  Jewish  institu- 
tions, synagogues,  schools,  hospitals,  and  charities. 
Gordon,  as  its  Secretary,  brought  order  into  every 
department.  He  introduced  decorum  in  the  syna- 
gogues, and  reforms  in  all  other  branches  of  com- 
munal affairs. 

Of  special  importance  was  the  influence  he  ex- 
ercised upon  the  Society  for  the  Spread  of  the  Has- 
kalah,  of  which,  also,  he  was  the  Secretary.  The 
society  was  organized  in  1861,  for  the  purpose  of 
disseminating  culture  among  Russian  Jews.  At  the 
head  of  the  movement  stood  Baron  Horace  Giinz- 
burg,  and  the  richest  and  most  cultured  Jews  from 
all  over  the  Empire  belonged  to  it.  Elijah  Har- 
kavy  and  Leon  Rosenthal  were  its  leading  spirits. 
The  society  established  a  stipendiary  fund  for  in- 
digent Jewish  students,  encouraged  and  supported 
Jewish  writers  of  merit,  and,  in  general,  watched 
over  the  intellectual  welfare  of  Russian  Jewry. 
Through  his  connection  with  this  society,  Gordon 
came  in  daily  contact  with  the  most  intellectual  and 
influential  Jews,  and  used  his  power  in  furthering 
the  interests  of  Hebrew  literature.  Hebrew  au- 
thors turned  to  him  with  requests  for  support,  and 


LEON   GORDON 

as  soon  as  he  recognized  the  value  of  a  certain 
work,  he  did  not  rest  until  the  society  took  up  its 
publication.  He  likewise  helped  a  great  many 
former  Talmudic  students,  who  had  come  to  St. 
Petersburg  to  get  an  education,  by  obtaining  for 
them  a  stipend  from  the  funds  of  the  society.  Gor- 
don, recognizing  the  unreliability  of  former  trans- 
lations, by  Christians,  was  also  instrumental  in  the 
publication  of  a  Pentateuch  translation  into  Rus- 
sian by  the  society  ( 1874) .  In  this  way  he  became 
the  intermediary  between  the  Jews  of  the  Pale  and 
those  of  the  capital,  and  the  mouthpiece  of  Russian 
Jewry  in  their  communication  with  their  brethren 
of  other  countries. 

The  seven  years  from  1872  to  1879  were  the 
fullest  of  Gordon's  life.  The  immense  amount  of 
business  connected  with  his  office  furnished  enough 
work  for  two  men;  but  Gordon  did  it  all  alone  in 
the  most  scrupulous  and  efficient  manner.  Busy 
though  he  was,  he  still  managed  to  find  time  to  con- 
tinue his  literary  work,  both  in  Hebrew  and  in  Rus- 
sian. Almost  all  that  he  wrote  during  those  years 
was  contributed  to  Ha-Shahar  and  Ha-Meliz.  For 
Ha-Shahar  he  wrote  poems,  and  for  Ha-Meliz 
humorous  sketches  and  feuilletons  under  the  head- 
ing of  Aleh  Niddaf,  which  were  read  with  delight 

70 


GORDON   IN   ST.    PETERSBURG 

by  the  thousands  of  readers  of  Ha-Meliz.  This 
activity  must  have  been  extremely  agreeable  to  him ; 
he  was  a  hard  worker  by  nature.  His  daily  contact 
with  the  elite  of  the  capital  must  also  have  been 
very  pleasant  to  him,  especially  by  contrast  with 
his  association  with  ignorant  and  superstitious  men 
and  women,  with  whom  he  had  spent  the  best  nine- 
teen years  of  his  life. 

But  his  peace  of  mind  and  the  congenial  activity 
were  not  to  last  long.  He  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  very  popular  with  the  young  people  of  the 
capital.  His  strong,  unyielding  nature  was  not 
agreeable  to  them.  They  accused  him  of  a  desire 
of  domineering  and  catering  to  the  rich.50  His  un- 
popularity was  so  marked  that  in  1874,  when,  at 
the  request  of  the  Government,  a  conference  of 
Jewish  representatives  met  at  St.  Petersburg  to 
discuss  the  Jewish  question,  Gordon  was  not  in- 
vited to  the  banquet  given  by  the  young  men  in 
honor  of  the  delegates.61  Soon  a  controversy  broke 
out  in  the  Jewish  community  over  the  election  of  a 
Rabbi.  Two  candidates  were  in  the  field."  Gor- 
don sided  with  one,  his  opponents  with  the  other. 
To  get  rid  of  Gordon's  opposition,  some  of  the  fol- 
lowers of  the  second  candidate  denounced  Gordon 
to  the  Government  as  a  Nihilist.53  At  two  in  the 

71 


LEON   GORDON 

morning,  on  the  Sabbath  before  Passover  of  the 
year  1879  (March  18),  the  police  swooped  down 
upon  his  house,  searched  all  his  papers,  and  carried 
him  and  his  wife  to  the  Lithuanian  Citadel,  where 
they  were  kept  in  close  confinement  for  six  weeks. 
On  the  third  of  May,  he  and  his  wife,  accompanied 
by  gendarmes,  were  banished  to  Petrozavodsk  in 
the  province  of  Olonetz  in  northwestern  Russia, 
where  they  stopped  eight  days.  Then  they  were 
ordered  to  live  in  the  suburb  of  Pudosh.  Of 
course,  the  charges  proved  false,  and  they  were  al- 
lowed to  return  to  St.  Petersburg  on  August  16,  one 
hundred  days  after  their  exile.54 

This  outrage  on  Gordon  caused  a  sensation 
throughout  Russian  Jewry,  and  especially  in  the 
capital.  It  seems,  though,  that  his  former  friends 
did  nothing  to  bring  about  his  release.65  The  latter 
years  of  the  reign  of  Alexander  II.  were  days  of 
confusion  and  disturbance.  The  Nihilists  were  ex- 
ceedingly active ;  the  police  suspected  everybody  of 
conspiracy.  In  fact,  no  man  trusted  another. 
Brother  suspected  brother,  and  a  friend  his  friend. 
This  is  said  in  extenuation  of  the  conduct  of  the 
prominent  Jews  of  St.  Petersburg.  They  may  have 
feared  that  their  exertions  in  behalf  of  one  sus- 
pected of  Nihilism  might  cast  suspicions  on  them- 

72 


GORDON    IN    ST.    PETERSBURG 

selves.  Fortunately,  Gordon's  own  brother,  and 
his  son-in-law,  Max  Kaplan,  were  prominent  law- 
yers in  the  capital,  and  they  succeeded  in  bringing 
about  his  release.  But  the  whole  affair  could  not 
but  cast  gloom  over  Gordon,  usually  so  optimistic. 
In  a  letter,  written  from  his  exile,  to  Zee'b  Kaplan,68 
his  lifelong  friend,  the  father  of  his  son-in-law,  he 
says  with  bitter  sarcasm :  " 

"  Perhaps,  after  all,  it  was  for  the  best.  In  the  course  of  my 
life  success  crowned  my  efforts.  .  .  .  From  a  low  station  in  life 
I  worked  my  way  up  to  a  high  position,  and  sat  in  the  councils 
of  Jewish  great  men.  I  had  some  part  in  the  '  Crown  of  the 
Torah,'  some  part  in  the  '  Crown  of  Greatness,'  and  through  my 
son-in-law  (a  Kohen)  also  some  part  in  the  'Crown  of  the 
Priesthood '.  .  .  .  I  lacked  only  the  '  Crown  of  Martyrdom '  .  .  .  . 
and  God  gave  me  that,  too." 

In  an  article,  "  Retrogression  not  Progress,"  as 
well  as  in  another  letter  to  Kaplan,88  in  which  he 
concludes  that  the  Jews  are  going  backward  in- 
stead of  forward,  he  refers  to  his  own  affair  as  a 
case  in  point. 

"  My  latest  experience,"  he  says,  "  is  one  of  the  proofs  that 
we  are  retrograding.  Time  was  when  the  Haskalah  made  pro- 
gress, truth  sprouted  from  the  earth,  and  superstition  was  hushed. 
Now  it  is  the  reverse.  The  blind  crawl  out  of  their  holes  and 
presume  to  lead.  The  Rabbinical  Seminaries  are  closed,  because 

73 


LEON   GORDON 

Rabbi  Samuel  Mohilev  requested  the  Ministry  to  close  them; 
the  Rabbinical  conference  is  busying  itself  with  nonsense.  Gor- 
don is  put  out  of  the  way,  that  his  opponents  may  carry  their 
point.  The  Maskilim  are  silent,  because  it  is  an  evil  time." 

In  the  meanwhile  his  position  had  been  given  to 
another,  and  his  means  of  support  were  thus  with- 
drawn. This  circumstance  naturally  added  to  his 
disappointment.  But  Gordon  did  not  despair  long. 
His  forced  absence  had  extinguished  the  hatred 
which  the  younger  men  felt  against  him.  The 
Giinzburgs  and  Poliakoffs  assured  him  of  their  sym- 
pathy and  aid.  Hebrew  writers  all  over  the  coun- 
try congratulated  him  upon  his  freedom,  and  looked 
upon  him  as  a  martyr.  His  friends  wanted  him  to 
occupy  his  former  position  as  Secretary,  but  he  re- 
fused to  take  it.  He  supported  himself  by  teaching 
the  sons  of  Baron  Giinzburg  and  by  literary  labors, 
chiefly  in  Russian,  in  the  Foskhod. 

In  the  days  of  his  gloom  Gordon  thought  that  he 
had  been  completely  forgotten  by  his  people,  and 
that  all  his  labors  in  the  field  of  Hebrew  literature 
had  been  in  vain.  Under  the  spell  of  these  sombre 
impressions  he  writes  to  Kaplan  (Nov.  13,  1879)  : 

"  You  say,  '  Bestir  thyself  for  the  sake  of  thy  love  for  our 
holy  tongue,  and  for  its  history,  on  the  pages  of  which  thy  name 
will  sparkle  like  a  star '.  .  .  .  Poor  innocent !  Do  you  really 

74 


GORDON   IN   ST.    PETERSBURG 

expect  the  names  of  our  writers  to  shine  like  stars,  and  not 
to  vanish  like  meteors  or  will-o'-the-wisps?  Do  you  not  see  that 
a  thick  cloud  hangs  over  the  language  and  its  writers,  to  darken 
and  destroy  them?  Where  are  those  who  are  to  write  the  history 
of  our  time,  and  to  plant  there  new  heavens  and  new  stars? 
....  Can't  you  foretell  the  future?  Sadducees  busying  them- 
selves with  Hellenistic  philosophy,  and  Pharisees,  with  useless 
nonsense!  Such  are  the  Jewish  classes  of  the  future.  Who  of 
them  will  point  out  the  new  stars  you  are  speaking  of?  Why 
do  you  persuade  yourself  to  believe  the  false  notion  that  my 
name  will  live  forever?"5* 

But  he  was  soon  to  realize  the  strong  hold  he 
had  upon  the  affection  of  the  cultured  classes  of  his 
people.  On  October  8,  1881,  twenty-five  years 
were  completed  from  the  time  Gordon's  first  poem, 
Ahabat  David  u-Michal,  appeared,  and  the  Maski- 
lim  all  over  Russia  determined  to  celebrate  this  oc- 
casion and  show  Gordon  that  he  was  understood 
and  appreciated.  The  elite  of  St.  Petersburg  gave 
a  great  banquet  in  his  honor;  he  was  presented  with 
a  golden  pen  and  a  loving-cup;  telegrams  arrived 
from  Jewish  towns  in  Russia  to  the  number  of  hun- 
dreds. Gordon  awoke  to  a  new  reality.  The 
consciousness  that  his  work  had  so  far  not  been  in 
vain  cheered  him,  and  urged  him  to  continue  his 
efforts  to  bring  enlightenment  to  his  people,  and  to 
strengthen  and  build  up  Hebrew  literature. 

76 


LEON   GORDON 

In  1880  he  became  the  unofficial  editor  of  Ha- 
Meliz,  and  he  instituted  beneficent  reforms  in  its 
conduct,  for  which  he  gained  the  gratitude  of  all 
Hebrew  writers.*0  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that 
while  newspapers  in  other  languages  are  not  con- 
sidered literary  in  the  full  sense  of  the  word,  and 
would  not  be  taken  as  models  of  style,  the  Hebrew 
newspapers  were  the  only  school,  in  which  Jewish 
writers  acquired  their  literary  training.  For  an 
entire  generation  Ha-Meliz  was  the  only  literary 
tribunal.  Unfortunately,  for  many  years  it  was  in 
incompetent  hands.  The  editor,  Alexander  Zeder- 
baum,  looked  upon  the  articles  contributed  to  its 
columns  as  his  private  property.  He  took  all  sorts 
of  liberties  with  them,  distorted  them,  and  short- 
ened or  lengthened  them  at  pleasure.  Often  a 
writer  could  not  recognize  his  own  article.  The 
editor  sometimes  inserted  personal  abuse  against 
his  enemies  in  articles  contributed  by  their  friends, 
and  actually  changed  their  thoughts  to  suit  himself. 
It  must  be  acknowledged  that  Zederbaum  some- 
times published  articles  in  Ha-Meliz  that  were  op- 
posed to  his  own  interests;  and,  when  the  public 
good  demanded  it,  he  spared  neither  the  rich  nor 
the  Rabbis,  to  whom  he  usually  catered.  But  it  is 
also  true  that  he  used  the  paper  for  his  own  per- 

76 


GORDON   IN   ST.    PETERSBURG 

sonal  aggrandizement,  and  praised  himself  and  his 
achievements  ad  nauseam. 

The  announcement  that  Gordon  was  to  be  the 
editor  of  Ha-Meliz  was,  therefore,  hailed  with  de- 
light by  a  host  of  Hebrew  writers.  Gordon  set 
himself  immediately  to  correct  the  abuses.  The 
young  writers  looked  up  to  him  as  the  leader  of 
Hebrew  literature,  and  the  mere  fact  that  his  name 
was  connected  with  the  paper  inspired  them  with 
confidence.  Therefore,  when  Gordon  issued  a  cir- 
cular to  the  Hebrew  writers,  calling  upon  them  to 
work  with  him  in  Ha-Meliz,  every  one  responded 
cheerfully.  When,  in  1885,  he  became  official  co- 
editor  with  Zederbaum,  with  the  permission  of  the 
Government,  one  of  the  conditions  he  made  with 
Zederbaum  was  that  he  be  given  the  right  to  invite 
any  writer  he  pleased,  and  pay  him  for  his  services, 
a  condition  that  was  quite  new.  The  acquisition 
of  good  writers  changed  the  literary  aspect  of  Ha- 
Meliz.  The  improvement  was  marked,  not  only  in 
what  Gordon  published,  but  also  in  what  he  did  not 
publish.  He  never  allowed  personalities  to  stain 
the  columns  of  the  paper.  He  was  very  conscien- 
tious about  manuscripts  submitted  to  him ;  he  either 
published  or  returned  them — an  unheard-of  thing; 
formerly,  correspondents  had  waited  for  months  to 

77 


LEON    GORDON 

know  the  fate  of  their  articles.  He  never  took  any 
liberties  with  the  contents  of  an  article,  and  by  per- 
sonal appeal  encouraged  those  in  whom  he  dis- 
covered literary  ability. 

As  the  writer  of  the  "  leaders,"  Gordon  natu- 
rally had  to  deal  with  the  great  problems  that  con- 
fronted the  Jews  of  Russia  at  the  time.  The  burn- 
ing question  was  Zionism,  or,  rather,  Palestine  col- 
onization. The  accession  of  Alexander  III.,  in 
1 88 1,  and  the  riots  which  followed  upon  the  heels 
of  that  event,  threw  the  Jews  into  a  state  of  con- 
fusion. The  dreams  of  final  emancipation  inspired 
by  the  liberality  of  Alexander  II.  had  become  less 
assured  in  the  latter  years  of  his  reign,  when,  on 
account  of  the  activity  of  the  Nihilists,  he  was 
forced  into  reactionary  measures.  But  Alexander 
III.  and  the  riots  crushed  all  Jewish  hopes  with 
one  fell  blow.  Alexander  III.  was  a  despot  and  a 
narrow-minded  fanatic,  and  the  Jews  felt  instinc- 
tively, even  before  his  accession,  that  nothing  was 
to  be  expected  from  him.  The  outrages  upon  the 
Jews  in  Yalta,  Elisabetgrad,  and  Nicolaiev  only 
confirmed  their  suspicions. 

What  was  to  be  done?  The  Jews  must  emi- 
grate. But  whither?  This  was  the  burning  ques- 
tion. America  or  Palestine?  Palestine  was  the 

78 


GORDON   IN   ST.    PETERSBURG 

more  ideal  place  of  the  two.  Smolensky  had  con- 
stantly been  advocating  nationalism  and  Palestine 
colonization,  had  clothed  them  in  the  most  ideal 
garb,  and  stirred  up  public  opinion  on  the  subject. 
He  became  still  more  active  in  the  movement  after 
the  riots  of  1881,  and  the  Zionistic,  colonizing, 
non-political  movement  was  started.  Gordon,  as 
an  editor,  naturally  had  to  deal  with  this  all-im- 
portant question.  In  Ha-Meliz  he  appeared  as  an 
outspoken  nationalist  and  Zionist;  but  we  must 
acknowledge,  with  Brainin,  that  Gordon  added  not 
a  single  new  thought  to  the  question.  The  com- 
plexity of  the  movement  bewildered  him.  He  did 
not  perceive  its  historic  or  political  bearing.  And 
because  he  did  not  have  a  comprehensive  notion 
of  the  question,  he  wavered,  hesitated,  and  was 
swayed  one  way  and  another. 

But  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  Gordon  had 
reason  for  his  wavering.  In  their  paroxysm  of 
rage  at  the  wrongs  perpetrated  upon  their  brethren, 
and  in  the  first  flush  of  their  enthusiasm  for  Zion, 
the  two  great  advocates  of  the  new  movement, 
Smolensky  and  M.  L.  Lilienblum,  had  gone  to  the 
extreme  of  preaching  narrow  nationalism  and  ha- 
tred of  Europe  and  European  culture.  The  Has- 
kalah  had  done  no  good  to  the  Jews,  they  held,  and 

79 


LEON   GORDON 

Europe  did  not  sympathize  with  them.  The  Jews, 
therefore,  should  return  to  Palestine,  establish  a 
Government  according  to  the  Jewish  spirit — a  the- 
ocracy— and  ignore  European  culture  completely. 
Such  were  the  sentiments  of  Smolensky  and  Lilien- 
blum.  Gordon  could  not  possibly  subscribe  to 
these  ideas.  All  his  life  he  had  waged  war  against 
superstition  and  narrow-mindedness,  had  advo- 
cated culture  and  religious  reform.  Should  he 
now,  under  the  influence  of  disappointment,  undo 
with  one  stroke  that  to  which  he  had  devoted  a 
lifetime?  The  choosing  of  the  golden  mean  was 
characteristic  of  Gordon.  He  loved  his  people, 
he  was  a  nationalist,  but  not  to  the  extreme  of  des- 
pising every  other  nation  with  its  culture.  More- 
over, Gordon,  like  every  well-informed  man, 
dreaded  the  idea  of  combining  temporal  with  eccle- 
siastic authority,  and  his  hatred  of  the  Rabbis  was 
too  pronounced  for  him  not  to  shudder  at  the 
thought  of  entrusting  a  Government  to  their  hands. 

"As  long  as  the  Rabbis  have  the  upper  hand,  it  will  be  im- 
possible for  Jews  to  establish  an  independent  Government.  Woe 
unto  us,  if  the  Government  falls  into  the  hands  of  Rabbi  Joshua 
Diskin  [of  Brest-Litovsk  and  later  Rabbi  of  Jerusalem]  and  his 
wife,  with  the  Shulhan  Aruk  as  the  national  constitution  come 
into  force  again!  Even  when  the  political  power  is  not  vested 

80 


GORDON    IN    ST.    PETERSBURG 

in  them,  the  Rabbis  rule  with  an  iron  hand;  how  much  more 
when  Reb  Lippele  becomes  a  chief  of  police,  and  Reb  Chatzkele 
a  gendarme.  Can  we  deny  that  Judaism,  in  its  present  state, 
is  opposed  to  all  culture?  In  my  younger  years  I  also  dreamed 
such  a  dream,  but  I  realize  now  that  Jewish  persecution  is 
worse  than  Gentile  persecution.  It  is  not  enough  to  look  upon 
this  question  from  its  national  aspect;  the  religious  side,  too,  is 
of  the  utmost  importance.  Since  it  is  impossible  to  move  the 
Rabbis  to  any  religious  reforms,  would  God  that  no  temporal 
power  fall  into  their  hands."  81 

His  distrust  of  the  Rabbis  he  gives  expression  to 
in  another  letter : 

"  Had  I  believed  that  such  a  thing  [colonization  of  Palestine 
by  Jews]  could  be  realized,  I  should  have  devoted  my  life  to 
stir  up  our  philanthropists  to  come  to  the  assistance  of  Monte- 
fiore ;  for  I  see  in  this  movement  the  cornerstone  of  the  rebuilding 
of  our  nation.  A  successful  colony  in  Palestine,  a  family  of 
Jews  engaged  in  agriculture,  may  be  the  beginning  of  a  national 
resurrection.  But  I  do  not  believe  in  such  a  possibility.  I  believe 
that  the  Samaritans  of  to-day  will  interrupt  the  work  at  the 
beginning,  and  the  foxes  that  lie  in  the  ruins  will  not  allow  us 
to  rebuild  them,  lest  they  be  disturbed  in  their  lairs.""2 

"  The  perpetuation  of  the  nation,  and  the  deliverance  of  Israel 
are  sacred  to  me,  too,  and  perhaps  more  so  than  to  those  who 
make  a  great  deal  of  noise.  I  will  not  destroy  the  inheritance 
of  the  Lord,  and  will  not  keep  back  the  redemption.  But  I  will 
not  retrograde.  I  will  not  call  upon  my  brethren  to  give  up  the 
Haskalah,  return  again  to  the  Ghettos,  or  teach  their  children 
the  jargon,  as  Lilienblum  does.93  ....  Before  we  go  to  Palestine, 

81 


LEON   GORDON 

\ve  must  prepare  ourselves  in  a  way  to  redeem  our  minds  before 
we  redeem  our  bodies."  ** 

With  such  views  as  these,  Gordon  could  not 
logically  enter  heart  and  soul  into  the  movement, 
and,  in  point  of  fact,  he  had  intended  to  keep  silent. 
But  in  1883,  on  a  visit  to  his  native  town,  Wilna, 
the  "  Lovers  of  Zion  "  there,  with  Levanda  at 
their  head,  rebuked  him  for  his  silence,  saying  that 
silence  on  the  part  of  a  man  like  him  meant  oppo- 
sition, which  was  certainly  not  his  intention.  Then 
Gordon  determined  to  agitate  the  question.  But 
since  he  was  not  fully  convinced  in  his  heart  of  the 
practicability  of  the  movement,  his  agitation  could 
not  but  be  vague  and  obscure. 

Gordon,  on  the  whole,  was  not  a  profound 
thinker;  he  echoed  the  thoughts  of  others,  floated 
with  the  current,  while  thinking  that  he  was  di- 
recting and  controlling  it.85  Moreover,  he  had  no 
literary  tact.  He  loved  his  people,  but,  not  having 
a  deep  comprehension  of  their  situation,  he  was 
moved  to  joy  or  despair  by  the  most  trifling  event 
in  their  life.  Nor  was  his  style  fit  for  journalistic 
work.  His  diction  was  a  combination  of  Hebrew, 
Aramaic,  and  Talmudic  quotations ;  one  of  his  edi- 
torials, written  in  1887,  was  in  rhyme.  He  in- 
(iulged  in  circumlocution,  and  was  often  carried 

82 


GORDON   IN   ST.    PETERSBURG 

away  by  the  current  of  his  own  verbosity,  by  his  use 
of  Biblical  quotations  and  expressions,  to  such  an 
extent  that  the  reader  could  hardly  find  out  what  he 
was  driving  at.  His  chief  duty  as  editor  appeared 
to  him  to  be  the  improvement  of  style.  "  The  He- 
brew paper  is  a  school  for  language,"  was  his 
motto.  As  a  reviewer  of  books  he  criticised  the 
style  above  everything  else.  He  never  attempted 
to  analyze  the  contents  of  a  book,  the  personality 
of  the  writer,  or  other  literary  factors.  The  best 
book  was  to  him  the  one  written  in  the  most  grace- 
ful and  correct  language.  But  though  Gordon's 
style  was  not  adapted  for  editorials,  it  yet  was  in- 
imitable. His  feuilletons  sparkled  with  wit  and 
humor,  springing  not  so  much  from  the  thought  as 
from  an  ingenious,  fanciful  combination  of  lan- 
guage, of  which  he  was  master.  He  was  not  a 
story-teller;  he  could  not  analyze  human  feelings, 
but  he  had  the  gift  of  describing,  masterfully  and 
humorously,  the  comical  side  of  Ghetto  life,  as 
nobody  else  could.  On  the  whole,  he  appealed  to 
the  old  generation,  of  which  he  himself  was  the 
product,  rather  than  to  the  new,  which  had  a  dis- 
tinct literary  taste,  and  demanded  a  simple  and 
straightforward  style. 

It  may,  nevertheless,  be  said  with  truth  that  Gor- 


LEON   GORDON 

don  created  many  writers.  Whenever  he  recog- 
nized literary  ability  in  a  young  writer,  he  would 
enter  into  correspondence  with  him,  and  endeavor 
to  encourage  him  by  kind  criticism  and  suggestions. 
His  immense  knowledge  of  the  old  and  modern 
Hebrew  literatures,  his  familiarity  with  modern 
languages,  and  the  reputation  he  gained  through 
his  poetic  works,  enveloped  his  head  with  a  halo 
in  the  eyes  of  the  younger  Hebrew  writers,  even 
those  of  European  education;  and  to  receive  a  per- 
sonal letter  from  the  "  great  Gordon  "  was  an 
honor  for  which  they  would  brave  everything.  He 
thus  kept  some  in  the  ranks  who,  without  his  en- 
couragement, would  have  devoted  themselves  to 
other  literatures.  His  criticism  of  books  submitted 
to  him  was  just  and  respectful,  in  strong  contrast 
with  the  method  of  criticism  prevalent  before  his 
time.  Gordon  thus  became  a  Johnson,  a  literary 
dictator.  The  only  weakness  he  had  was  that  he 
liked  to  insert  quotations  from  his  own  poems  in 
articles  sent  to  him.  Brainin  testifies  that  on  the 
proof  of  his  article  Gesisat  ha-Sofer  ("The 
Writer's  Agony"),  sent  to  him  by  Gordon,  he 
found  the  remark,  "  If  I  had  written  this,  I  should 
have  said,  *  The  poet  says/  "  and  then  follows  a 
quotation  from  one  of  his  own  poems. 

84 


GORDON   IN   ST.    PETERSBURG 

The  relation  between  Gordon  and  Zederbaum  "* 
was  always  strained,  and  by  September,  1888,  it 
became  unendurable.  Gordon  severed  all  connec- 
tion with  the  paper,  and  for  the  few  remaining 
years  of  his  life,  he  busied  himself  with  writing 
from  "  left  to  right,"  and  arranging  the  publication 
of  his  prose  works,  the  first  volume  of  which,  under 
the  name  Kol  Kitbe  Gordon,  was  published  by 
Rabnitzky  and  Hornstein,  in  1889.  His  articles 
in  Russian  were  written  for  a  Russian  edition  of 
Brockhaus's  Real-Encyclopadie,  Gordon  having 
charge  of  the  department  for  Jews  and  Judaism. 


85 


CHAPTER  IV 

GORDON  THE  MAN 

The  impartial  critic,  who  endeavors  to  discover 
the  true  character,  the  purely  human  side,  of  a 
great  man,  his  strength  and  his  foibles,  is  often  con- 
fronted by  such  contradictory  estimates  on  the  part 
of  the  great  man's  contemporaries  that  he  is  at  a 
loss  how  to  gauge  the  truth.  A  man  in  the  public 
eye  naturally  has  his  admirers  and  his  detractors, 
the  former  magnifying  his  virtues,  the  latter  em- 
phasizing his  weaknesses.  Neither  side  is  alto- 
gether right,  neither  side  is  altogether  wrong.  No 
saint  but  has  his  foibles,  no  scoundrel  but  has  his 
redeeming  virtues.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  it  is 
often  posterity,  far  removed  from  the  scene  of 
action  and  from  the  passions  and  turmoil  of  the 
conflict,  that  is  best  able  to  form  a  calm  and  dis- 
passionate judgment  of  the  true  character  of  a 
man  who  has  long  passed  away.  For  instance,  the 
final,  universal  opinion  of  Cromwell's  character 
was  two  centuries  in  forming,  and  this  is  true  in  a 
lesser  degree  of  men  of  lesser  note. 

86 


GORDON   THE   MAN 

Gordon  was  the  first  and  foremost  man  of  He- 
brew letters  in  his  generation.  He  was  recognized 
everywhere  as  the  "  Lion  of  the  Company,"  to  use 
a  characteristic  phrase.  In  the  eyes  of  the  fledg- 
lings of  the  Haskalah,  who  had  just  broken 
through  the  shell  of  the  old-fashioned  Talmudic 
colleges,  and  caught  their  first  glimpse  of  the 
beauty  of  knowledge  in  his  works — and  the  great 
majority  of  Hebrew  readers  at  that  time  belonged 
to  this  class — a  halo  of  glory  surrounded  Gordon's 
name.  Their  attitude  is  hardly  intelligible  to 
Western  men.  They  addressed  him  in  terms  that 
would  seem  to  us  the  most  fulsome  flattery.  Be- 
cause he  accepted  such  praises  in  the  spirit  in  which 
they  were  given,  his  enemies  accused  him  of  vanity 
and  conceit.  The  Hebrew  critic  Reuben  Brainin 
ascribes  to  him,  in  addition,  insincerity  and  syco- 
phancy. Others,  again,  charge  him  with  miserli- 
ness, avarice,  and  even  usury.  The  gulf  between 
the  adulation  of  the  former  and  the  strictures  of 
the  latter  is  so  wide  as  to  be  unbridgeable.  The 
reason  of  these  discrepancies  in  opinion  is  evident. 

The  truth  of  the  matter  is  that  very  few  people 
knew  Gordon  intimately.  He  was  a  man  sufficient 
unto  himself,  and  made  few  confidants.  Famil- 
iarity he  frowned  down  upon.  He  was  not  in- 

87 


LEON   GORDON 

genuous  and  frank.  The  better  part  of  his  life 
was  spent  in  Lithuania,  in  a  hostile  atmosphere, 
where  intimate  friendships  were  out  of  the  ques- 
tion, because  he  was  practically  alone  in  his  fight 
against  the  fanatics  that  surrounded  him.  This 
forced  silence  and  self-sufficiency  made  reticence  a 
part  of  his  character.  In  his  correspondence  he 
was  a  different  man;  his  pent-up  feelings  found 
vent  in  his  letters.  In  them  he  unbosomed  himself, 
and  betrayed  a  depth  of  feeling,  a  warmth  of 
friendship,  which  those  in  personal  contact  with 
him  hardly  suspected  him  of  possessing.  As  a  re- 
sult we  have  this  anomaly:  Those  who  knew  him 
through  his  correspondence  admired  and  extolled 
him,  and  those  who  came  in  personal  touch  with 
him  considered  him  harsh,  imperious,  and  hard. 
If  one  takes  into  account  the  natural  envy  and  jeal- 
ousy excited  by  his  fame,  and  his  unshakable  posi- 
tion as  the  virtual  dictator  of  Hebrew  literature, 
one  can  readily  see  how  Gordon's  lack  of  personal 
magnetism  could  be  used  as  a  weapon  in  the  hands 
of  his  enemies.  Fortunately  we  are  in  possession 
of  a  key  to  Gordon  the  man  that  will  unlock  the 
secret  of  his  real  nature.  The  true  character  of  a 
man  is  best  revealed  by  his  private  correspondence. 
Written,  as  personal  letters  are,  in  an  offhand  man- 

88 


GORDON   THE    MAN 

ner,  and  certainly  with  no  eye  upon  posterity,  they 
convey  the  moods  in  which  the  writer  finds  himself, 
the  impulses  that  sway  him,  and  thus  his  real  self 
is  revealed.  The  five  hundred  and  fifty-nine  let- 
ters, collected  and  published  by  I.  J.  Weissberg, 
covering  a  period  of  more  than  thirty  years,  from 
1858  to  1892,  will  therefore  be  our  guide  in  esti- 
mating Gordon  the  man. 

The  strongest  characteristic  of  Gordon  is  his 
fearlessness  and  independence.  He  was  a  fighter 
by  nature.  He  was  devoted  to  his  people,  heart 
and  soul,  and  he  fought  in  their  behalf  in  spite  of 
opposition  and  obstacles.  Did  it  not  require  the 
courage  of  "  a  heart  of  triple  oak  "  to  combat,  al- 
most single-handed,  the  hosts  of  conservatism,  of 
darkness  and  superstition,  arrayed  against  him  and 
his  fellow-Maskilim  ?  Those  were  desperate  days, 
the  days  of  Nicholas  I.  and  the  early  days  of  Alex- 
ander II.  The  life  of  the  cultured  was  embittered 
by  the  fanatics,  who  persecuted,  tormented,  and 
denounced  them  to  the  Government  as  dangerous 
persons.  Is  it  not  a  characteristic  of  fearlessness  to 
throw  down  the  gauntlet  to  such  a  class?  What 
could  have  prevented  Gordon  from  turning  his 
back  on  his  people  and  leaving  them  to  their  fate? 
He  was  a  master  of  the  German  and  the  Russian 


LEON   GORDON 

language,  as  is  seen  by  his  articles  in  the  Allge- 
meine  Zeitung  des  Judenthums  and  in  numerous 
Russian  magazines.  He  could  easily  have  devoted 
himself  to  the  literatures  of  these  languages,  and 
lived  a  life  of  opulence  and  honor.  But  he  loved 
his  people,  and  he  realized  that  the  only  way  to 
reach  them  was  by  means  of  the  Hebrew  language, 
and  in  Hebrew  he  wrote.  He  raised  his  mighty 
voice  on  behalf  of  culture  before  deaf  ears.  The 
crowd  uttered  a  howl  of  disapproval.  It  de- 
nounced him,  but  he  stood  his  ground. 

The  polemics  he  was  forced  into,  with  both  the 
Maskilim  and  their  opponents,  embittered  his  life; 
but  he  never  flinched.  "  I  maintain  that  every  Jew 
of  our  time  who  has  the  ability  to  do  something, 
and  the  opportunity  of  doing  it,  in  behalf  of  his 
people,  morally,  intellectually,  or  economically, 
and  does  not  do  it,  is  guilty  of  the  crime  of  trea- 
son." Do  not  such  sentiments  bespeak  the  true, 
unselfish  patriot?  Moreover,  it  must  be  borne  in 
mind  that  Gordon  never  wrote  for  money.  His 
contributions  to  Ha-Shahar,  the  most  valuable  of 
his  poems,  were  given  as  a  freewill  offering,  be- 
cause he  thought  the  paper  worthy  of  support." 
The  Society  for  the  Spread  of  the  Haskalah,  which 
had  published  his  poetical  works  in  1884,  had 

90 


GORDON   THE   MAN 

promised  him  a  certain  remuneration  for  his  work, 
"  after  the  costs  of  publication  shall  have  been 
paid."  Gordon  never  pressed  his  claim  upon  them, 
and  the  debt  was  allowed  to  run  on  indefinitely. 
He  even  hated  to  associate  with  men  who  made 
Hebrew  literature  a  business  undertaking.  In  a 
letter  to  his  friend,  I.  J.  Weissberg,  he  says :  "  You 
keep  nudging  me  continually,  c  Work  in  the  sanctu- 
ary '  .  .  .  .  Though  you  must  know  that  '  the  es- 
sence of  my  soul  is  coin  '  [I  believe  this  phrase  was 
invented  by  Frishman],  I  would  under  no  con- 
sideration associate  with  men  who  have  no  spirit 
but  that  of  business."  .  ..."  I  feel  that  old  age 
is  coming  on.  .  .  .  My  only  hope  is  that  my  age 
will  not  put  my  youth  to  shame;  and  as  in  my 
younger  days  I  managed  to  live  in  independence, 
so  I  shall  endeavor  to  finish  my  life  in  labor,  work, 
and  toil.  The  only  honor  I  ask  is  that  when  I  am 
dead  it  may  be  said  of  me  that  there  was  a  writer 
in  Israel  who  did  not  humiliate  himself,  who  did 
not  ask  for  charity,  who  did  not  throw  himself 
upon  the  public,  but  earned  his  bread  by  his  honest 
toil."  He  gave  up  his  position  on  Ha-Meliz, 
which  paid  him  three  thousand  roubles  a  year,  a 
considerable  salary  in  Russia,  because  Zeder- 
baum,  the  publisher,  did  not  come  up  to  his 

91 


LEON    GORDON 

standard  of  honesty  and  probity  in  the  conduct  of 
his  paper. 

It  will  be  readily  seen  that  a  man  of  such  inde- 
pendence would  not  condescend  to  sycophancy. 
That  he  liked  flattery — and  who  does  not? — may 
be  true,  but  not  in  its  sinister  sense.  He  had  de- 
voted his  life  to  the  interests  of  Hebrew  literature, 
and  he  naturally  felt  gratified  when  the  younger 
writers  looked  up  to  him  as  their  dictator,  and 
spoke  of  him  in  flattering  terms.  Still,  Gordon 
didn't  make  much  of  it.  It  always  seemed  to  him 
that  his  life's  work  was  a  failure,  and  the  compli- 
ments paid  to  him  were  mere  irony;  and  many  of 
his  strongest  poems  are  written  in  a  strain  of  pessi- 
mism. 

Gordon's  relation  to  Smolensky  *  affords  another 

*  Dr.  J.  Klausner  well  expresses  the  difference  between  Gordon 
and  Smolensky,  with  reference  to  their  respective  attitudes  to- 
wards Hebrew  literature:  "Gordon  regarded  Hebrew  literature 
as  a  means  of  promoting  the  ideals  of  modern  civilization,  the 
end  in  view  being  the  Haskalah.  Smolensky  looked  upon  it  as 
an  end  in  itself,  as  a  necessary  national  possession.  Essentially, 
though,  their  object  was  identical.  Smolensky  endeavored  to 
develop  a  national  consciousness,  because  such  consciousness  would 
tend  to  the  moral  and  intellectual  upliftment  of  the  race,  which 
was  Gordon's  object  also.  Gordon  was  not  opposed  to  national- 
ism, only  he  was  too  practical  to  share  the  exaggerated  hopes  of 
the  ardent  dreamers.  This  thought  is  explicitly  stated  in  his 
letters."  See  Ziyyun  li-Meshorer,  1894. 

92 


GORDON   THE   MAN 

indication  of  his  nobility  of  character.  Mordecai 
Cohen,  carried  away  by  his  excessive  admiration 
for  Smolensky,  endeavors  to  extol  him  at  the  ex- 
pense of  Gordon.  Gordon,70  he  says,  was  evidently 
jealous  of  Smolensky,  because  of  the  love  mani- 
fested towards  him  by  so  many  of  the  younger 
writers.  Gordon  had  many  admirers,  but  few 
friends.  In  Gordon's  letters,  however,  we  hear  a 
different  tale.  "  Ha-Shahar  pleases  me  very  much. 
Its  editor  is  a  man  of  talent  and  good  common 
sense,  and  I  send  him  my  contributions  with 
pleasure."  "  I  like  Ha-Shahar  because  of  its 
frankness,  and  because  its  editor  removed  the  mask 
behind  which  other  Jewish  editors  hide  themselves. 
Not  only  is  Smolensky  personally  more  capable 
than  his  colleagues,  but  he  invites  every  writer  to 

speak  his  opinion  freely If  you  [Kaplan] 

can  do  anything  for  him  in  the  way  of  getting  new 
subscribers,  do  so  at  once,  for  he  deserves  it:  if  not, 
send  him  your  own  contributions,  poems  or  prose 
articles."  From  these  letters  written  to  Kaplan, 
Gordon's  lifelong  and  most  intimate  friend,  from 
whom  he  hid  nothing,  it  is  evident  that  Gordon 
bore  Smolensky  no  ill-will,  personally,  but  that,  on 
the  contrary,  he  tried  to  do  for  Ha-Shahar  what 
he  could. 

93 


LEON    GORDON 

The  coldness  between  these  two  great  leaders  in 
Israel  was  due  to  their  different  temperaments. 
Smolensky  was  enthusiastic  and  impulsive ;  Gordon 
was  cool  and  deliberate.  Gordon  did  not  sympa- 
thize with  the  extreme  nationalism  of  Smolensky, 
as  we  have  shown  above.  Only  once  Gordon 
evinced  some  bitterness  towards  Smolensky,  which, 
however,  was  caused  by  the  unpardonable  neglect 
of  the  latter.  When,  in  1882,  the  twenty-fifth  an- 
niversary of  Gordon's  activity  in  Hebrew  literature 
was  celebrated  by  the  Maskilim  all  over  Russia, 
Smolensky  not  only  ignored  the  occurrence  in  his 
Shahar,  but  he  did  not  even  write  a  few  personal 
words  of  congratulation.  Smolensky  tried  to 
excuse  himself  in  Ha-Shahar,  a  few  months  later, 
by  stating  that  he  thought  the  celebration  of  Gor- 
don's Jubilee  had  been  postponed  on  account  of  the 
riots  then  raging  in  Russia,  as  if  the  riots  could 
have  prevented  him,  in  Vienna,  from  writing  a  few 
personal  words  of  felicitation.  He  atoned  for  his 
neglect  by  writing  a  long  and  very  complimentary 
appreciation  of  Gordon's  works  in  Ha-Shahar.T3 
Gordon  accepted  the  apology  with  good  grace, 
though  he  could  not  refrain  from  expressing  his 
chagrin  to  his  friend  Dolitzky:  "  Smolensky  is 
angry  at  me,  and  did  not  even  congratulate  me  on 

94 


GORDON   THE    MAN 

my  Jubilee.  While  he  was  in  St.  Petersburg  in 
1 88 1,  I  did  not  begrudge  the  five  roubles  for  the 
banquet  given  in  his  honor  [April  5,  1881],  but  he 
doesn't  care  to  spend  five  kreuzer  to  write  a  few 
lines  to  me,  because  I  cannot  do  for  him  now  as 
much  as  I  did  before."  The  exceedingly  touching 
poem  which  he  wrote  on  the  death  of  Smolensky 
also  goes  to  show  his  sincere  regard  for  the  la- 
mented journalist.  Even  his  criticism  of  Smolensky 
is  mild  and  just.  He  says:  "  I  knew  Smolensky  and 
realized  his  value.  He  was  undoubtedly  an  excel- 
lent writer,  and  a  man  of  great  abilities;  and,  had 
he  lived  longer  [Smolensky  died  at  the  age  of 
forty-three],  he  would  have  accomplished  a  great 
deal  of  good.  But  he  also  had  his  shortcomings  as 
a  writer  and  as  a  man.  His  fault  as  a  writer  was 
his  diffuseness  and  his  habit  of  circumlocution.  He 
repeated  the  same  thought  over  and  over  again  in 
different  words,  probably  because  he  had  to  fill  up 
his  paper  by  himself,  having  but  few  contributors. 
His  shortcomings  as  a  man  consisted  in  that  he 
considered  himself  a  great  man,  an  authority, 
which  has  the  same  effect  upon  a  writer  as  con- 
scious beauty  upon  a  girl."  In  all  this,  there  is 
certainly  no  malice,  but  simply  a  frank,  even  sym- 
pathetic expression  of  opinion. 

95 


LEON    GORDON 

The  fairest  estimate  of  Gordon's  character  is 
given  by  I.  H.  Rabnitzky,  in  the  article  "  Gordon 
Seen  through  His  Letters."  The  writer  says, 
"  From  many  of  Gordon's  letters,  we  recognize  his 
modesty — a  trait  characteristic  of  truly  great 
men."  At  the  age  of  twenty-seven  Gordon  him- 
self writes :  "  I  know  well  my  own  insignificance, 
and  therefore  I  have  vowed  in  my  heart  of  hearts 
to  strive  to  live  up  to  the  expectations  of  my  friends 
who  have  highly  complimented  me  on  my  work." 
Such  sentiments  are  common  in  his  letters.78  Nor 
are  these  expressions  of  modesty  feigned.  We  feel 
they  are  genuine  and  natural.  He  was  not  ashamed 
to  acknowledge  his  errors,  but  he  never  passed  over 
in  silence  any  attack  on  his  honor.  He  was  even 
ready  to  suspect  his  critic  of  personal  enmity  or 
other  sinister  motives.  After  Lilienblum's  criti- 
cism appeared  in  Mellz  Ehad  mini  Elef  in  1884, 
he  says  in  a  letter:78  "  The  truth  is  that  Zeder- 
baum  hired  Lilienblum  to  assail  me,"  °  though 
again  and  again  Gordon  speaks  of  Lilienblum  in 
the  highest  terms  of  respect. 

In  general,  Gordon  is  not  distinguished  for 
ready  forgiveness.  Illustrations  of  bad  temper  are 
seen  frequently  in  his  letters,  especially  against 
Zederbaum.  Gordon  undoubtedly  had  reasons  to 

96 


GORDON   THE   MAN 

be  bitter  against  him,  but  he  goes  beyond  all  bounds 
in  his  ridicule  of  the  editor  of  Ha-Meliz.  In  his 
letter  8l  to  Kaplan,  in  which  he  asked  him  to  urge 
the  Maskilim  of  Riga  to  congratulate  Zederbaum 
on  his  seventieth  anniversary,  he  says :  "  He  cer- 
tainly deserves  the  honor,  and  we  also  have  cause 
for  congratulation.  For  what  had  we  done,  had 
this  been  his  thirtieth  or  fortieth  instead  of  his 
seventieth  birthday?  " 

In  pecuniary  matters  he  was  punctilious,  because 
just.  Scrupulous  with  regard  to  other  people's 
money,  he  saw  no  reason  to  forego  any  of  his  own, 
and  his  exactitude  leads  him  to  keep  detailed  ac- 
counts, even  to  cents,  that  are  sometimes  repellant. 
Considering  this  trait  of  close-fistedness  and  that 
he  even  loaned  out  money  on  interest  (on  what 
authority  this  report  is  based,  I  could  not  establish) , 
it  is  the  more  surprising  that  in  a  letter  to  Syrkin 
he  says : "  "  We  are  friends,  and  need  not  be 
ashamed  before  each  other.  I  have  saved  up  a 
few  hundred  roubles,  and  laid  them  by  for  a  rainy 
day.  I  am  ready  to  lend  you  two  hundred  roubles 
until  your  condition  improves."  The  essence  of 
Gordon's  soul  then  was  not  coin.  Many  letters 
testify  to  his  readiness  and  willingness  to  help  his 
friends  and  exert  himself  in  their  behalf. 

97 


LEON    GORDON 

A  profound  feeling  of  love  for  his  family 
breathes  from  many  of  his  letters.  He  does  not 
speak  much  of  his  wife,  nor  of  his  son,  who  left 
him  because  they  could  not  agree,  but  of  his  two 
daughters,  and  particularly  of  his  grandson  Jacob, 
he  speaks  with  the  deepest  affection.  In  a  letter  to 
Kaplan,  the  father  of  his  son-in-law,  he  says:  "  I 
am  sorry  that  you  cannot  see  our  grandson  now, 
while  he  still  looks  like  a  cherub,  with  the  smile  of 
innocence  on  his  lips.  You  will  see  him  after  the 
Shekinah  has  departed  from  him."  In  many  and 
many  a  letter  to  Kaplan  he  dwells  with  delight 
upon  the  growth  and  mental  development  of  their 
grandson,  what  games  he  indulges  in,  and  his  child- 
ish questions  and  remarks.  His  whole  heart  is 
taken  up  with  his  little  grandson.  He  endeavored 
to  give  him  a  Hebrew  education,  and  it  is  with  the 
greatest  delight  that  he  reports  to  Kaplan  that 
their  grandson  signed  his  full  name  in  Hebrew, 
jxSsKp  D'Dpn  p  spjr ,  without  any  assistance,  and  the 
progress  he  was  making  in  his  Hebrew  studies; 
and  great  is  his  joy  when  he  writes :  "  I  send  you 
enclosed  a  three-line  letter  in  Hebrew,  written  by 
Jacob."  He  considered  the  Hebrew  instruction 
of  his  grandson  as  a  sacred  duty.  He  never  missed 
a  day.  His  son-in-law,  however,  must  have  looked 

98 


GORDON   THE   MAN 

with  disfavor  upon  the  Hebrew  instruction  the  lit- 
tle chap  received.  Gordon  complains  to  Kaplan 
that  Maxim  never  allows  him  to  prolong  the  lesson 
even  one  minute  beyond  the  appointed  hour;  at 
times,  when  he  came  to  instruct  his  grandson,  he 
would  find  him  out,  according  to  the  instructions 
of  his  son-in-law.  The  lessons  were  thus  neglected, 
and  it  was  almost  in  despair  that  he  wrote  to  Kap- 
lan that  his  grandson  had  already  forgotten  how  to 
read  Hebrew.  Such  is  the  irony  of  fate.  The 
children  of  the  two  foremost  Hebrew  writers  of 
the  day  were  not  able  to  read  their  own  parents' 
works,  and  the  Hebrew  language  was  a  sealed 
book  to  them.  The  poet  who  hailed  with  delight 
any  new  appearance  on  the  stage  of  Hebrew  litera- 
ture, who  was  enthusiastic  when  he  found  a  woman 
who  could  write  Hebrew,  the  man  who  had  devoted 
all  his  life  to  Hebrew  literature,  had  the  misfortune 
not  to  be  understood  by  his  own  children. 

Gordon,  as  a  truly  Europeanized  Jew,  was  natu- 
rally lax  in  observing  the  minutiae  of  the  law,  but 
he  observed  the  essential  practices  of  Judaism.  He 
endeavored  to  obtain  exemption,  from  School  Di- 
rector Fursow,  for  Jewish  children  from  writing 
on  the  Sabbath  day  in  the  Gymnasium,  as  the  com- 
pulsion to  do  it  would  keep  many  Jewish  boys 

99 


LEON   GORDON 

away  from  school.8*  He  was  opposed  to  the  pla- 
cing of  the  so-called  Shield  of  David  on  the  syna- 
gogue, and  wrote  against  it,  both  in  Russian  and 
Hebrew,85  because  it  was  his  opinion  that  the  sym- 
bol was  connected  with  some  superstitious  practices 
of  antiquity.  He  believed  in  a  pure  Judaism  com- 
bined with  true  culture.  Thus,  for  instance,  in  a 
speech  which  he  made  to  a  committee  of  Argen- 
tine colonists,  who  called  on  him  before  their  de- 
parture from  St.  Petersburg,  he  dwelt  upon  the 
importance  of  combining  Judaism  with  education 
and  manual  labor.  "  Outside  of  the  duty  which 
you  take  upon  yourselves,  of  improving  the  mate- 
rial condition  of  your  brethren,  a  holy  duty  is  in- 
cumbent upon  you,  to  keep  intact  and  pure  the 
spirit  of  Israel,  the  spirit  of  God,  which  enabled 
Israel  to  withstand  all  the  vicissitudes  of  fortune  in 
the  course  of  two  thousand  years;  the  holy  spirit 
which  strengthened  his  heart  to  persist  in  his  purity 
and  in  all  the  noble  traits  characteristic  of  the  Jew, 
which  have  prevented  him  from  sinking  to  the  level 
of  a  serf,  from  whose  face  the  image  of  God  and  of 
man  has  almost  disappeared.  Israel  is  yet  ready  to 
show  to  the  nations  a  phenomenon  the  like  of 
which  has  never  been  seen :  a  peasantry  not  given  to 
drink;  vintners  not  indulging  in  wine  to  excess; 

100 


GORDON   THE    MAN 

laborers  not  given  to  brawls.  However,  all  this 
will  be  possible  only  if,  while  taking  care  of  the  ma- 
terial needs  of  your  brethren,  you  will  take  pains 
to  care  for  their  souls,  too,  by  erecting  schools  for 
the  young  and  synagogues  for  the  aged,  that  the 
youth  may  not  grow  wild,  and  the  old  may  not 
have  to  spend  their  leisure  time  after  their  hard 
labor  in  drinking  resorts.  Hence,  besides  the  sci- 
entific men  essential  to  a  colony  (physicians,  chem- 
ists, and  agriculturists)  there  must  also  be  in  every 
colony  skilled  pedagogues  to  establish  and  conduct 
schools,  where  should  be  taught  Judaism  and  secu- 
lar knowledge — men  who  have  a  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  Judaism  as  well  as  of  secular  science,  and 
who  know  how  to  walk  with  impunity  on  a  path 
with  fire  on  one  side  and  snow  on  the  other." 

Such  was  Gordon  the  man :  a  lover  of  his  people 
and  his  kind;  sober,  industrious,  independent,  self- 
centred,  and  self-sufficient;  lacking  personal  mag- 
netism ;  reticent,  and  yet  effusive  in  correspondence ; 
generally  parsimonious,  often  very  generous;  scru- 
pulously honest,  exacting  the  same  quality  from 
others;  realizing  the  value  of  money,  yet  refusing 
to  accept  remuneration  for  his  poetical  composi- 
tions; harsh  and  brooking  no  reflection  upon  his 
honor;  tender  and  loving  to  his  family  and  the  few 

101 


LEON   GORDON 

personal  friends  he  possessed.  In  a  word,  Gordon 
was  the  type  of  the  self-made  Russian  aristocratic 
Jew,  with  all  his  virtues  and  failings.  On  the 
whole,  a  strong  man,  a  character  not  unworthy  of 
Gordon  the  poet. 


102 


CHAPTER  V 

GORDON  THE  POET 
EPIC  POEMS 

The  tribute  paid  to  Oliver  Goldsmith,  that  there 
was  not  a  department  of  literature  he  did  not 
touch,  and  that  he  touched  nothing  without  adorn- 
ing it,  may  with  justice  be  applied  to  Gordon. 
Whatever  he  wrote  bore  the  stamp  of  so  pro- 
nounced an  originality  as  to  be  recognized  imme- 
diately as  belonging  to  him ;  for  imitation  was  trav- 
esty. His  stories  and  sketches  mirror  the  life  he 
saw  around  him,  and  move  us  now  to  tears,  now  to 
smiles,  according  to  the  fancy  of  the  writer.  But 
neither  his  stories  nor  his  sketches,  humorous  to  the 
extreme,  nor  his  Yiddish  poems,  add  anything  to 
Gordon's  fame;  they  only  show  his  versatility. 
For  another  man  these  minor  productions  would 
have  been  sufficient  to  establish  a  literary  reputa- 
tion, but  Gordon's  fame  rests  mainly  on  his  poetic 
works,  to  which  we  shall  now  direct  our  attention, 
after  a  few  introductory  remarks  about  the  devel- 
opment of  modern  Hebrew  poetry. 

103 


LEON   GORDON 

From  the  close  of  the  golden  period  of  Hebrew 
literature  in  the  Middle  Ages,  the  time  of  Gabirol, 
Jehudah  Halevi,  Harizi,  and  Emanuel  the  Roman, 
down  to  the  period  of  the  Haskalah,  there  was  no 
great  singer  in  Israel,  no  poet  in  the  true  signifi- 
cance of  the  word.  Poetry  was  confined  to  litur- 
gical compositions,  prayers,  praises,  supplications, 
and  lamentations.  Israel  was  constantly  humbled 
and  persecuted;  and  the  afflictions  of  the  exile 
found  expression  in  an  occasional  hymn  that  sought 
to  affirm  Israel's  eternal  faith  in  God,  or  to  appeal 
to  Divine  mercy  to  put  an  end  to  his  tribulations. 
These  were  adopted  in  the  liturgy,  and  proved  a 
source  of  consolation  and  strength  to  the  unhappy 
children  of  oppression.  Their  muse  was  confined 
to  sacred  subjects.  How  could  they  sing  of  love, 
of  nature,  and  of  beauty  when  their  life  was  a 
series  of  miseries  and  tears?  Even  when  brighter 
days  dawned  for  Israel,  the  Hebrew  muse  that 
had  slumbered  so  long  was  reluctant  to  awake. 
Moses  Zacuto  (seventeenth  century)  and  Moses 
Hayyim  Luzzatto  (first  half  of  eighteenth  cen- 
tury) wrote  plays;  but  though  the  latter  evinced 
true  poetic  gifts,  the  subjects  chosen  by  both  had 
no  relation  to  life,  and  Zacuto's  style  was  not  really 
poetic, 

104 


EPIC    POEMS 

The  period  of  the  Meassefim  (end  of  eighteenth 
century)  marks  a  new  departure  in  Hebrew  poetry. 
Hartwig  Wessely,  the  poet  of  the  period,  wrote 
an  epic  on  Moses,  which,  in  form  at  least,  sur- 
passed all  contemporary  poetic  compositions  in  He- 
brew. His  language  is  purer  and  more  forcible 
than  that  of  his  predecessors,  and  his  metre  is  flow- 
ing and  easy.  But  Wessely  was  not  a  creator.  He 
used  the  material  as  he  found  it;  he  added  nothing 
of  his  own,  but  merely  adopted  the  Biblical  account 
of  the  Exodus  and  that  of  the  Midrashim,  and 
composed  them  into  a  harmonious  whole.  His  pic- 
tures do  not  excite  our  imagination,  nor  does  his 
grandiloquence  stir  our  hearts  and  our  feelings.  In 
his  original  poems  he  is  weak.  Outside  of  the 
above-mentioned  epic,  neither  he  nor  his  contem- 
poraries wrote  on  Jewish  subjects.  Most  of  the 
writers  of  the  Meassefim  and  the  Bikkure  ha-Ittim 
schools,  who  tried  their  hands  at  verse,  composed 
occasional  poems  to  friends,  dukes,  or  princes,  or 
translated  poems  from  other  languages.  Though 
the  scope  of  Hebrew  poetry  was  thus  enlarged, 
verses  being  written  on  flowers,  birds,  pastoral 
scenes,  and  the  like,  they  had  no  relation  to  Jewish 
life  whatever.  Inspired  as  these  writers  were  with 
the  ideal  of  preaching  culture  to  their  people, 

105 


LEON    GORDON 

"  they  crowed  like  cocks  to  rouse  Israel  from  his 
slumber  and  announce  the  dawn  of  a  glorious 
morning.' 

Of  the  considerable  bulk  of  Hebrew  poetry  up 
to  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  there 
was  little  that  had  true  literary  merit.  Some  wrote 
correct  rhymes,  but  not  poetry,  while  others  wrote 
in  a  sort  of  unintelligible  jargon.  Few  of  those 
who  wrote  Hebrew  verse  in  Germany,  Galicia, 
and  Italy  possessed  a  complete  mastery  of  the  lan- 
guage. Even  S.  D.  Luzzatto  wrote  poetry  but 
seldom,  and  his  diction  was  not  invariably  pure. 
Werbel  wrote  good  Hebrew,  but  his  poetic  powers 
were  limited;  Eichenbaum  had  more  poetic  talent, 
but  neither  was  a  poet  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word. 
Among  them  all  there  was  not  one  whom  we  might 
justly  compare  with  Gabirol  or  Jehudah  Halevi. 

Abraham  Bar  Lebensohn  was  the  first  modern 
Hebrew  writer  of  verse  that  approaches  the  ideal 
of  a  poet.  Unlike  his  predecessors,  the  themes  of 
his  compositions  were  not  mere  abstract  notions  or 
stories  from  the  past.  He  sang  of  the  beauty  of 
life  and  nature ;  of  death,  of  human  weal  and  woe, 
of  poverty,  of  wealth,  and  pity.  His  songs  bore  a 
practical  relation  to  the  life  around  him.  His 
poems  gave  expression  to  the  ideals  of  his  time. 

106 


EPIC    POEMS 

He  endeavored  to  inculcate  the  beauty  of  knowl- 
edge in  his  readers,  and  the  possibility  of  har- 
monizing religion  and  science.  Moreover,  Leben- 
sohn  was  a  perfect  master  of  the  Hebrew  language. 
His  diction  was  pure  and  elevated;  he  had  a  true 
sense  for  style.  He  enriched  the  language  by  coin- 
ing new  poetic  terms  based  on  Biblical  roots,  and 
both  his  rhythm  and  his  rhyme  were  finished.  He 
rises  occasionally  to  the  height  of  true  poetry,  and 
then  his  lines  show  the  latent  possibilities  of  the 
man.  But  Lebensohn  mistook  the  function  of  the 
poet.  Beauty  of  language  is  what  he  chiefly  aimed 
at,  diction  was  the  all  in  all  to  him.  His  main  ob- 
ject was  to  write  a  model  Hebrew  for  others  to 
imitate;  but  he  was  not  possessed  of  deep  feeling. 
He  philosophizes  and  preaches  in  his  poems,  but 
his  words  fail  to  move  us.  "  His  words  come 
from  the  head,  not  from  the  heart,"  as  Gordon 
expresses  it.  He  was  a  grammarian  and  a  philoso- 
pher even  in  his  poems.  Besides,  his  poetry  had  no 
direct  bearing  upon  Jewish  life.  The  lamentable 
condition  of  his  brethren  under  Alexander  I.  and 
Nicholas  I.  did  not  concern  him ;  he  was  above  the 
people.  His  sympathy  goes  out  to  humanity,  and 
his  poems  are  Jewish  only  in  so  far  as  they  are 
human.  Still,  he  added  dignity  to  Hebrew  poetry, 

107 


LEON    GORDON 

created  a  poetic  style,  and  thus  paved  the  way  for 
the  two  truly  great  poets  that  succeeded  him :  his 
own  son,  Micah  Joseph  Lebensohn,  and  Leon 
Gordon.87 

Micah  Joseph  Lebensohn  was  endowed  with 
true  poetic  gifts,  a  poet  von  Gottes  Gnaden.  His 
"  Songs  of  Zion  "  show  him  to  be  a  skilful  inter- 
preter of  human  passions  and  aspirations,  with  a 
profound  touch  of  pathos  and  a  keen  appreciation 
of  the  beauties  of  nature.  His  diction  is  richly  po- 
etic, such  as  the  author  of  the  Song  of  Songs  has 
given  us  in  supreme  form.  His  partial  translations 
of  the  Aeneid  betray  sparks  of  epic  possibilities, 
which  have  something  Virgilian  in  them.  Unfor- 
tunately, his  young  life  was  nipped  in  the  bud; 
death  claimed  him  before  twenty-four  summers 
had  hardly  shown  him  the  beauty  of  life.  Had  he 
lived,  he  would  undoubtedly  have  developed  into 
a  great  national  poet.  However,  it  was  not  des- 
tined that  Hebrew  poetry  should  be  enriched  by 
his  talents.  Happily,  Leon  Gordon,  the  friend  of 
his  youth,  remained  to  take  his  place,  and  he 
showed  what  beautiful  harmony  the  Hebrew  lyre 
is  capable  of  when  touched  by  the  hand  of  the 
master. 

108 


EPIC    POEMS 

Peter  Smolensky  thus  pays  his  tribute  to  Gordon, 
in  his  forcible  Hebrew  diction  and  imagery: 

"  The  spirit  of  poetry  struck  him  with  all  its  might.  It  created 
for  him  expressions  which  nobody  can  equal ;  it  opened  his  eyes 
to  see  and  to  understand,  and  to  paint  in  faithful  colors  all  that 
his  mind's  eye  saw.  Gordon  is  a  true  poet  in  the  fullest  meaning 
of  the  term,  and,  above  all,  a  Hebrew  poet.  Poets  in  other  lan- 
guages, if  they  do  not  limit  themselves  to  the  drama  or  to  nar- 
rative poems,  sing  of  birds,  of  stars,  of  nature,  of  spring,  of 
summer  and  autumn  and  cruel  winter,  when  the  earth  is  dressed 
in  a  shroud ;  and  through  it  all  there  runs  an  undercurrent  of 
the  sighs  of  the  lover  and  the  tears  of  the  beloved,  and  one  hears 
the  piping  of  the  shepherd  and  the  lowing  of  the  flock.  But  all 
these  are  not  fit  themes  for  a  Hebrew  poet.  His  heart,  influenced 
by  the  language  of  his  fathers,  is  full  of  unrest.  His  spirit  does 
not  exult  over  the  daily  natural  phenomena ;  the  present  is  not  for 
him.  His  language  is  not  given  for  life,  but  is  a  relic  of  the 
dead  past.  The  spirit  of  the  poet  wanders  back  into  the  wilder- 
ness, 'midst  the  cedars  of  Lebanon  and  the  ancient  mountains; 
he  sings  dirges  over  the  ruins  of  glorious  cities,  and  he  walks 
knee-deep  in  the  streams  of  the  blood  of  the  slain ;  his  feet  stumble 
on  the  skulls  wherein  lofty  spirits  once  dwelt.  A  three-thousand- 
year-long  cry  rings  in  his  ears;  the  rattling  of  bones  of  human 
sacrifices  disturbs  his  spirit,  and  his  eyes  move  over  a  scroll 
written  on  both  sides  with  blood  and  tears.  .  .  .  Can  he  sing  of 
free  birds,  of  happy  rustics  and  amorous  swains,  of  youths  and 
maidens  that  want  naught  but  love?  Gordon's  poems  show  us 
what  the  eyes  of  the  prophet  see;  and  who  can  see  like  him?"1 

109 


LEON   GORDON 

Gordon  was,  indeed,  a  true  Hebrew  poet.  He 
loved  his  people  and  their  language  with  all  his 
heart  and  soul.  He  looked  with  reverence  upon 
the  past,  and  with  hope  and  anticipation  toward 
the  future.  But  the  present  was  terrible,  almost 
unbearable.  As  a  true  poet,  he  describes  what  he 
sees  around  him.  The  pictures  are  not  at  all  pleas- 
ant, but,  as  he  himself  says : 

I  am  a  painter;  brush  in  hand 

Upon  the  canvas  I  portray 

Whate'er  mine  eyes  behold.    (Poems,  iv,  p.  132.) 

To  understand  and  appreciate  Gordon  fully,  one 
must  read  and  re-read  his  poems  in  the  original. 
However,  we  shall  here  endeavor  to  give  a  cursory 
review  of  his  poetical  works,  with  such  quotations 
here  and  there  as  will  serve  to  illustrate  the  subject 
under  review. 

"  When  a  man  is  young,  he  utters  words  of 
song,"  says  the  Midrash,  and  Gordon,  full  of 
youthful  enthusiasm  and  inspiration,  took  to  writ- 
ing a  love  poem,  as  most  young  poets  will.  But, 
as  a  Hebrew  poet,  he  chose  as  his  theme  the  Bib- 
lical romance  of  David  and  Michal.  In  lofty  and 
impassioned  lines  he  portrays  the  career  of  David, 
— his  persecution  by  Saul,  his  love  for  Saul's 

110 


EPIC   POEMS 

daughter  Michal,  his  wars  with  the  Philistines,  his 
subsequent  rise  to  power,  and  the  estrangement  be- 
tween him  and  Michal.  The  story  as  narrated  in 
the  Bible  contains  all  the  elements  of  the  epic; 
hence  the  poet's  inventive  genius  was  not  called 
into  play,  though  there  was  room  for  poetic  out- 
bursts in  the  description  of  nature,  of  emotion,  and 
of  love.  The  majestic  figure  of  Saul  swayed  by 
jealousy  and  hatred,  the  romantic  career  of  David, 
who  from  a  shepherd's  estate  rose  to  the  throne  of 
Israel,  these  are  depicted  by  the  poet  vividly  and 
forcibly  in  the  twelve  cantos  of  Ahabat  David 
u-Michal,  "  The  Love  of  David  and  Michal." 

The  poem  has  its  weak  points.  Gordon  is  not 
an  epic  poet  in  the  classical  sense  of  the  term.  His 
powers  of  nature  description  are  weak;  he  cannot 
interpret  the  human  passions  fully;  he  does  not 
enter  into  the  secret  souls  of  his  heroes.  His  de- 
scriptions of  nature  are  couched  in  Biblical  quota- 
tions, which,  to  a  modern  reader,  are  vague  and 
unimpressive.  He  cannot  describe  a  landscape  in 
detail,  not  only  because  he  lacks  the  expression,  but 
also  because  he  lacks  the  concept.  His  language  is, 
indeed,  rich  and  picturesque,  smooth  and  flowing, 
like  the  brook  of  Siloam;  but  his  imagery  is  com- 
pletely without  the  virtue  of  originality,  it  is  copied 

111 


LEON   GORDON 

from  the  Bible.  So  are  his  figures  of  speech.  He 
uses  them  not  because  he  feels  that  they  represent 
his  thoughts  exactly,  like  Moore's  Oriental  im- 
agery in  "  Lalla  Rookh,"  but  because  they  are 
ready  made  for  him  in  the  Bible.  Nor  is  there  suf- 
ficient action  in  the  poem  to  be  worthy  of  the  name 
of  epic.  The  poet  often  digresses  with  apostrophes 
to  Providence  (Canto  ii),  Love  (Canto  iv), 
Jealousy  (Canto  v),  Happiness  (Canto  ix),  An- 
ger and  Hope  (Canto  x),  and  Duty  (Canto  xi), 
which  are  medieval  in  their  notions,  and  not 
strongly  poetic  in  expression.  His  portrayal  of 
Michal,  in  fact,  of  all  the  beautiful  feminine  crea- 
tions of  his  fancy,  is  nothing  but  a  rhymed  version 
of  the  Shepherdess  in  Canticles.  Gordon  can- 
not tear  himself  away  from  his  model,  the  Bible. 

The  above  criticism  may  equally  be  applied  to 
Gordon's  second  Davidic  poem,  Milhamot  David 
ba-Pelishtim,  "  David's  Wars  against  the  Philis- 
tines," though  in  the  two  cantos  of  the  latter  he 
rises  to  the  height  of  a  true  epic  poet,  especially  in 
describing  the  heroic  achievements  of  David's 
body-guard,  and  it  is  more  original.  Still  one  can- 
not fail  to  recognize  in  several  passages  of  the  two 
poems  a  striking  similarity  to  Shelomoh  we- 
Kohelet,  "  Solomon  and  Kohelet,"  of  Lebensohn, 

112 


EPIC    POEMS 

the  younger.  In  fact,  it  seems  as  though  Gordon 
had  assimilated  Lebensohn's  poems  to  such  an  ex- 
tent that  he  unconsciously  borrowed  phrases  and 
expressions  from  them,  only  the  imitation,  if  we 
may  so  term  it,  is  much  weaker  than  the  original. 
Lebensohn,  the  younger,  by  far  surpasses  Gordon 
in  the  painting  of  natural  scenery,  in  describing 
and  analyzing  emotions,  and  even  in  beauty  and 
brevity  of  diction. 

Nevertheless,  considering  that  these  were  the 
first  efforts  of  a  youth  of  twenty-two,  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  they  are  the  production  of  a  gifted 
poet.  Amidst  the  laxity  of  his  expressions,  numer- 
ous lines  stand  out  concise,  bold,  and  strong,  show- 
ing a  wealth  of  feeling  and  force,  and  his  diction  is 
purely  Biblical  throughout.  He  has  shown,  as  was 
his  intention,  that  the  Hebrew  language,  stiff  and 
dead  as  it  had  been,  was  living  enough  and  flexible 
enough  to  describe  scenes  dear  to  the  heart  of  every 
Jew.  The  subject  per  se  had  nothing  in  it  to  arouse 
his  enthusiasm  and  make  him  soar  above  the  nar- 
row circle  he  had  circumscribed  for  himself.  Given 
a  subject  nearer  to  his  heart,  given  a  theme  that 
would  allow  his  fancy  free  scope,  and  he  would  dis- 
play all  his  powers. 

"  The  Love  of  David  and  Michal,"  published  in 
113 


LEON   GORDON 

1857,  is  introduced  by  a  dedicatory  poem  to  Abra- 
ham Bar  Lebensohn,  in  which  the  young  poet  feel- 
ingly acknowledges  his  indebtedness  to  the  older 
man,  in  the  words : 

I  am  thy  pupil,  though  within  thy  school 
I  did  not  come  instruction  to  receive. 

Thy  son  I  am — though  birth  thou  gavest  me  not — 
I  was  a  brother  to  thy  son  who's  gone.  .  .  . 

Again : 

And  in  my  youth  when  first  I  seized  a  pen, 
My  lines  I  patterned  after  thine. 

And  he  dedicates  himself  to  the  service  of  the  He- 
brew language  in  this  forceful  couplet : 

The  Hebrew  Tongue's  eternal  slave  am  I. 
My  life  with  hers  fore'er  be  interwoven, 

a  promise  to  which  he  remained  faithful  all  his  life. 
His  third  Davidic  poem,  "  David  and  Bar- 
zillai,"  is  a  pastoral,  contrasting  the  happiness  of  a 
peaceful,  contented,  rustic  life  with  the  noisy, 
treacherous  life  of  the  palace.  The  poet  describes 
the  rural  retreat  of  Barzillai,  after  his  generous 
treatment  of  the  unhappy  king  David,  and  the  de- 
scription savors  of  the  field  and  the  forest,  and  tells 
of  the  thoughts  of  faith  they  engender: 

114 


EPIC    POEMS 

He  sees  the  changes  of  the  eve  and  morn, 
Beholds  the  sun,  now  dying,  now  reborn, 
The  starry  hosts  that  tacitly  proclaim 
The  glories  of  Jehovah's  awful  name; 
And  in  his  heart  he  feels  there  is  a  plan, 
There  is  a  refuge  for  the  soul  of  man. 
And  full  of  faith  and  full  of  hope  divine, 
He  placid  sees  the  waves  of  life  decline. 

(Poems,  iii,  p.  154.) 

David,  broken  in  body  and  spirit,  finds  Barzillai 
in  his  retreat,  and  invites  him  to  accompany  him  to 
the  capital,  there  to  share  with  him  his  regal  splen- 
dor; but  Barzillai  delicately  declines  on  account  of 
old  age,  and  because 

Better  is  a  poor,  but  peaceful,  life 

Than  a  crown  accompanied  by  strife.    (Ibid.,  p.  156.) 

The  bitter  truth  strikes  home,  and  the  king  weeps 
as  he  departs. 

Another  Biblical  poem  belonging  to  the  same 
cycle,  "  Asenath,  Poti-pherah's  Daughter,"  is 
based  on  the  story  of  Joseph  and  on  the  Talmudic 
legend "  that  Poti-pherah,  Joseph's  father-in-law, 
is  identical  with  Potiphar,  his  former  master. 
The  poet  describes  feelingly  the  history  of  Joseph 
up  to  his  elevation,  interwoven  with  the  romance  of 
Joseph's  love  for  Asenath,  his  master's  daughter, 

115 


LEON   GORDON 

who  is  his  pupil,  and  in  whom  a  feeling  of  affection 
for  Joseph  develops  during  his  sojourn  in  their 
house.  The  language  of  the  poem  is  free  from 
conceit,  and  is  plain  and  straightforward.  The 
rhymes  are  smooth,  the  versification  perfect,  the 
action  swift,  with  a  few  touches  of  sympathy  inter- 
spersed here  and  there.  It  is  not  a  great  poem,  but 
the  reader  is  carried  away  by  the  ease  and  grace 
with  which  the  story  is  told.  Asenath's  dream  and 
Joseph's  interpretation  of  it  are  a  happy  instance 
of  adaptation  from  the  Greek.  They  add  to  the 
action,  and  agree  perfectly  with  the  Biblical  char- 
acterization of  Joseph.  The  poem  is  charming 
because  of  its  simplicity. 

His  last  Biblical  poem,  "  Zedekiah  in  Prison," 
is  a  monologue  intended  to  convey  the  feelings  of 
this  most  unfortunate  king  of  Judah.  Zedekiah  is 
made  to  denounce  Jeremiah  in  the  bitterest  terms, 
and  ascribe  to  him  his  own  misfortune  and  the 
downfall  of  the  nation.  His  fate  had  come  upon 
him  because  he  had  disobeyed  Jeremiah.  What 
business  had  the  priest  to  meddle  with  political  af- 
fairs? Saul  was  punished  for  disobeying  Samuel. 
Was  it  Saul's  fault  that  Samuel  did  not  keep  his 
promise,  and  came  too  late?  The  same  with  Jere- 
miah. He  demands  that  the  people  carry  no  bur- 

116 


EPIC    POEMS 

den  on  the  Sabbath.  Was  this  the  time  for  observ- 
ing holidays  when  the  enemy  were  swarming  about 
Jerusalem?  Besides,  in  what  way  would  the  ob- 
servance of  the  Sabbath  prevent  the  impending  ca- 
tastrophe? In  this  way  Zedekiah  rails  at  Jere- 
miah, and  complains  of  the  injustice  done  to  him. 
Gordon  looks  upon  the  struggle  between  Jeremiah 
and  Zedekiah  as  typical  of  the  strife  between  the 
ecclesiastical  and  temporal  powers  that  has  gone  on 
in  history  from  time  immemorial.  Gordon  makes 
Zedekiah  say  things  which  Gordon  himself  does 
not  agree  with,  though  he  is  in  sympathy  with  him. 
The  poem,  it  must  be  remembered,  was  written  in 
1879,  m  tne  Lithuanian  prison  in  which  Gordon 
was  confined,  and  the  poetic  prisoner  used  the  royal 
prisoner  as  a  mouthpiece  to  voice  his  own  griev- 
ances, for  he,  too,  had  suffered  at  the  hands  of 
fanatics.  At  any  rate,  he  could  feel  with  Zede- 
kiah.80 

The  well-known  story  of  the  woman  and  her 
seven  sons  who  refused  to  worship  Antiochus  is  the 
theme  of  the  poem  Ha-Ishah  wi-Yeladeha,  "  The 
Woman  and  her  Children."  The  narrative  is  full 
of  pathos  and  sublimity,  and  the  language  corre- 
sponds to  the  thought.  Bi-Mezulot  Yam,  "  In  the 
Depths  of  the  Sea,"  however,  is  a  masterpiece  that 

117 


LEON   GORDON 

surpasses  in  vigor  and  pathos  any  other  production 
by  Gordon.  It  is  based  on  a  well-known  Jewish 
story  relating  to  the  sorrows  of  the  Spanish  Jews. 
A  ship  carrying  Spanish  exiles  leaves  port.  Among 
the  passengers  is  Peninnah,  the  daughter  of  the 
Rabbi  of  Tortonah,  and  her  mother.  The  young 
woman,  who  only  a  month  ago  saw  her  husband 
burned  at  the  stake,  is  so  beautiful  that  she  capti- 
vates the  heart  of  the  captain,  who  gives  her  to 
understand  that,  should  she  refuse  to  become  his 
mistress,  he  will  carry  all  his  Jewish  passengers  to 
some  desert  island,  and  leave  them  there  to  their 
fate,  as  other  captains  had  done.  Peninnah  prom- 
ises to  surrender  herself  to  him  after  all  the  Jewish 
exiles  are  landed  safely  in  some  port.  After  this  is 
done,  the  ship  returns  with  Peninnah  and  her 
mother.  But  early  in  the  morning  of  the  next  day, 
both  Peninnah  and  her  mother,  to  save  themselves 
from  shame,  leap  overboard  and  are  drowned  in 
the  ocean,  martyrs  for  their  brethren: 

The  Ocean  saw  and  trembled  at  the  sight, 
And  round  about  the  mighty  breakers  roared, 
While  those  pure  souls — and  purer  far  than  gold — 
A  martyr  grave  beneath  the  billows  found, 
And  midst  the  Ocean's  mountain  peaks  reposed. 
Unseen,  unwept,  beneath  the  deep  they  slept, 

118 


EPIC    POEMS 

The  Ocean's  rocks  their  tombstones,  and  the  stars 
Their  legend,  and  the  heavenly  blue  their  vault. 
Silent  the  Moon  in  pity  looked  on  them; 
Silent  the  Earth  the  cloud's  mute  gaze  beheld, 
The  Earth  that  sees  a  myriad  tragedies, 
And  never  condescends  to  shed  a  tear." 

(Poems,  iii,  p.  202.) 

The  last  of  his  historical  poems,  Ben  Shinne 
Arayot,  "  In  the  Lions'  Teeth,"  is  told  with  strong 
dramatic  effect  and  lofty  poetic  fervor.  It  relates 
an  incident  of  the  Jewish  wars  with  the  Romans. 
The  enemy  besieged  Jerusalem,  and  confusion  and 
consternation  reigned  within  the  city.  Driven  by 
despair,  the  defenders  of  Jerusalem  determine  not 
to  sell  their  country  too  cheaply,  and  they  prepare 
themselves  for  the  final  attack.  Simon,  a  young 
patriot,  throws  himself  into  the  conflict;  but  before 
his  departure  he  bids  a  last  farewell  to  his  beloved 
Martha,  who  encourages  him  to  fight  for  his  coun- 
try to  the  bitter  end.84 

Simon  departs.  The  Jews  are  defeated;  Simon 
is  carried  as  a  captive  to  Rome,  and  Martha  is  sold 
as  a  slave  to  a  Roman  matron.  The  young  hero  is 
made  to  fight  with  a  lion  in  the  arena.  Among  the 
spectators  is  Martha,  who  accompanied  her  mis- 
tress Agrippina  to  the  amphitheatre.  Martha  rec- 

119 


LEON   GORDON 

ognizes  her  lover,  and,  with  anguish  in  her  soul, 
watches  the  outcome  of  the  terrible  conflict.  At 
first,  Simon  succeeds  in  thrusting  his  sword  into  the 
side  of  the  fierce  Libyan  lion;  but  his  blade  is 
broken,  and  he  can  defend  himself  no  longer.  In 
despair  he  raises  his  eyes  and  recognizes  his 
Martha  in  the  multitude.  He  musters  up  all  his 
courage  and  attacks  the  lion  bare-handed  in  the 
hope  that,  should  he  succeed  in  killing  the  lion,  he 
may  gain  Martha's  and  his  own  freedom.  But 
his  strength  fails  him.  The  wounded  lion  leaps 
upon  him  and  tears  him  limb  from  limb.  At  this 
horrible  spectacle  a  shout  of  delight  issues  from  the 
throats  of  the  savage  lookers-on.  Martha  can 
bear  it  no  longer.  A  shriek  of  anguish  escapes 
her;  she  reels,  and  expires  together  with  her  lover. 
The  catastrophe  that  befell  the  Jewish  nation 
the  poet  ascribes,  as  in  so  many  other  instances,  to 
the  Weltanschauung  of  the  Rabbis.  For  centuries 
they  taught  the  law,  established  schools  where 
they  instructed  the  people  to  ignore  true  under- 
standing, believe  in  superstition,  and  look  upon  this 
life  as  trivial.  Instead  of  teaching  handicrafts  and 
the  useful  arts,  instead  of  establishing  military 
schools  and  preparing  weapons  for  the  imminent 
conflict  with  the  Romans,  the  Rabbis  taught 

120 


EPIC    POEMS 

Within  the  walls  to  be  immured, 
To  row  against  life's  vital  stream; 
Alive  in  Heaven,  dead  on  Earth; 
In  dream  to  talk — awake  to  dream. 

(Poems,  iii,  pp.  175-6.) 


Again : 


Within  Ben  Gorion's  halls  the  Rabbis  met — 
Did  they  discuss  the  nation's  crying  need  ? 
No!  sword  in  hand  they  argued  and  decreed: 
One  must  not  drink  ....  nor  separate  ....  nor  read  .... 

(Ibid.) 

Zeal  and  patriotism  alone  cannot  avail  under  such 
leaders. 

The  poet  bases  his  view,  that  the  Jews  were  not 
prepared  for  war  with  the  Romans,  on  Josephus." 
His  attitude  was  attacked  by  M.  Pines  in  Ha-Mag- 
gid,  and  by  Lilienblum,"  who  defend  the  position 
of  the  Rabbis  and  roundly  abuse  Gordon  for  taking 
the  testimony  of  the  "  traitor  Josephus."  It 
seems,  however,  that  Gordon  did  not  intend  to 
criticise  the  ancient  Rabbis  so  much  as  his  contem- 
poraries, of  whom  what  he  said  was  certainly  true; 
but,  writing  of  an  historical  epoch,  he  made  use  of 
the  past  to  illustrate  the  conditions  of  the  present. 

So  much  for  his  historical  poems.  In  the  "  Love 
of  David  and  Michal  "  he  had  not  yet  emancipated 

121 


LEON    GORDON 

himself  from  the  influence  of  the  elder  Lebensohn,85 
who  cared  more  for  purity  and  accuracy  of  diction 
than  for  the  strength  and  poetic  expression  of  the 
thought.  In  his  later  poems,  however,  he  out- 
stripped his  master  by  far.  "  His  diction  is  unsur- 
passable; pure,  like  Lebensohn's,  but  freer  and 
sweeter.  Reading  him,  we  hear  the  voice  of  a 
Hebrew  poet  as  we  heard  it  in  Spain." 

But  Gordon  was  not  satisfied  with  singing  of  the 
past.  He  desired  to  show  his  people  the  misery  of 
the  present,  in  order  to  prepare  them  for  a  happier 
future.  And  it  was  in  the  "  Epics  of  the  Present  " 
that  he  showed  himself  the  supreme  master  of  style, 
humor,  and  sarcasm.  Upon  these  poems  he 
brought  to  bear  the  vast  store  of  Talmudic  knowl- 
edge and  style  at  his  command,  and  he  portrayed 
pictures  of  life,  the  like  of  which  cannot  be  found 
in  any  literature,  not  only  because  they  are  Jewish 
to  the  core,  but  also  because  no  poet  ever  painted 
such  pictures  with  the  vividness  of  the  life  they  de- 
scribe. His  chief  aim  was  to  bring  about  religious 
reforms  in  Rabbinical  Judaism  through  this  cycle 
of  poems,  consisting  of  Kozo  shel  Yod,  "  The  Dot 
on  a  Yod,"  Shomeret  Yabam,  "  Waiting  for  a 
Brother-in-law,"  Ashakka  de-Rispak,  "  A  Wagon's 
Axle,"  We-Somahta  be-Hageka,  "  Rejoice  on  thy 

122 


EPIC    POEMS 

Festival,"  and  Shene  Yosef  ben  Shimeon,  "  Two 
Josephs  ben  Simon." 

The  greatest  poem  of  the  cycle  is  "  The  Dot  on 
a  Yod,"  written  in  1876"  It  is  directed  against 
the  rigorous  interpretation  of  the  laws  of  divorce 
by  the  Rabbis.  Bath-shua  was  married  at  the  age 
of  seventeen  to  a  certain  Hillel,  a  Talmudic  stu- 
dent, and  after  living  with  her  three  years  her  hus- 
band left  her  to  seek  his  fortune  abroad.  At  first 
she  heard  from  her  husband  regularly,  but  after  a 
few  months  he  ceased  to  write,  and  nobody  knew 
his  whereabouts.  Her  father  died,  too;  and  the 
poor  woman,  left  destitute  with  two  children, 
opened  a  small  shop,  to  support  her  family.  Mean- 
while there  arrived  in  Ayolon,  the  scene  where  the 
action  is  laid,  a  young  man,  Fabi,  to  superintend 
the  railway  constructions  in  the  town.  He  fell  in 
love  with  Bath-shua  and  learned  her  story. 
Through  a  friend  in  Liverpool  he  heard  that  Hillel 
was  peddling  there,  and  would  be  willing  to  di- 
vorce his  wife  according  to  Jewish  law,  for  a  con- 
sideration of  five  hundred  roubles,  with  which  he 
intended  to  go  to  America.  Fabi  sent  the  money, 
and  the  Get,  or  bill  of  divorce,  arrived  in  Ayolon, 
and  was  duly  transmitted  to  the  Rabbi.  Fabi  and 
Bath-shua  were  to  be  married  after  the  ceremony 

123 


LEON    GORDON 

of  the  divorce  was  performed  by  the  Rabbi.  Un- 
fortunately, the  Rabbi 98  discovered  that  the  name 
Hillel  (y?»!i)  was  spelled  without  a  Yod  in  the  Get. 
He  declared  the  Get  invalid.  Meanwhile  the  news 
arrived  that  the  vessel  on  which  Hillel  had  sailed 
for  America  had  foundered  in  the  ocean,  and  all 
on  board  were  lost.  Since,  according  to  Rabbinical 
law,  "  the  wife  of  a  man  lost  in  bottomless  waters 
cannot  remarry,"  the  poor  woman  was  left  a  grass- 
widow  (Agunah)  all  her  life. 

Such  is  the  simple  plot  of  the  poem,  but  how 
vividly  and  touchingly  it  is  told!  The  whole  sad 
life  of  the  Jewish  woman  of  the  time  is  passed  in 
review  before  us.  The  poet  begins  by  describing 
the  Jewish  woman  in  the  pathetic  lines : 

Eternal  bondage  is  the  Jewess's  life: 
Her  shop  she  tends  incessant  day  by  day; 
A  mother  she — she  nurses  and  she  weans, 
And  bakes  and  cooks  and  quickly  fades  away. 

(Poems,  iv,  p.  5.). 

For  not  only  was  she  socially  man's  inferior,  but 

E'en   heaven's   dew  they  kept   from  thee: 

Of  all  religious  laws  they  heed 

To  thee  the  niggards  gave  but  three. 

She  is  given  in  marriage  without  her  consent,  dis- 

124 


EPIC    POEMS 

regarding  all  feelings  of  love  she  may  have,  for 

Love?     Our    mothers    never    knew    it! 

and  are 

Arameans   they,   the   maiden   to   consult  ?  ** 

The  poet  next  describes  Bath-shua's  beauty  and 
accomplishments;  her  engagement  to  Hillel,  who 
had  nothing  to  recommend  him  but  his  Talmudic 
scholarship,  for 

His  eyes  were  calf-like,  and  his  locks  like  tails, 
His  face  all  shrivelled— a  Rabbi  Zadok's  fig,100 
But  he  is  versed  in  deep  Rabbinic  lore, 

with  which  she  must  have  been  satisfied,  for  she 
never  said  a  word : 

And  can  the  gossips  tell  aright 
Who  claim  Bath-shua  weeps  at  night? 

her  marriage  and  life  with  him;  his  departure  for 
lands  unknown;  her  acquaintance  with  Fabi;  the 
divorce;  Rabbi  nnon'DDi,  so  called,  not  because  he 
was  a  descendant  of  Tartars,  but  because 

Rabbi  Vofsi's  was  a  Tartar  soul,  indeed; 

the  tragic  scene  when  the  divorce  was  declared  in- 
valid; and  the  subsequent  misery  of  Bath-shua, 
who  summarizes  her  misfortune  in  the  phrase, 

A  letter's  dot  has  proved  my  ruin. 
125 


LEON    GORDON 

The  poem  is  in  many  places  sarcastic,  but  the 
heart  of  the  poet  goes  out  to  his  people,  who  do  not 
realize  the  full  extent  of  their  misery : 

The  City's  fall  we  constantly  recall, 
The  nation's  fall  as  constantly  ignore ; 
The  sound  of  glass  beneath  the  Huppah  broken, 
Echoes  the  misery  of  our  children's  cries.101 

(Poems,  iv,  p.  18.) 

Pity  the  poet  who  sees  and  describes  such  scenes ! 

The  poem  has  its  shortcomings,  too.  The  pic- 
ture of  Bath-shua  is  on  the  one  hand  overdrawn, 
and  on  the  other  indefinite.  Nor  does  the  poet 
enter  deep  into  the  inner  psychology  of  his  heroes 
and  heroines.  But  on  the  whole  Kozo  shel  Yod  is 
one  of  the  most  realistic  and  impressive  poems 
ever  written  in  Hebrew. 

"  Waiting  for  a  Brother-in-law  "  is  less  vigorous 
and  realistic,  though  pathetic  and  impressive.  The 
avowed  purpose  of  the  poem  is  to  hold  up  to  scorn 
the  institution  of  the  Levirate  marriage,  which  is  a 
mere  formality,  and  yet  is  practised  to  the  discom- 
fort and  often  the  ruin  of  the  unhappy  widow — 
and  accidentally  to  ridicule  the  greedy  "  enlight- 
ened Rabbis,"  graduates  of  the  Russian  Rabbinical 
Seminaries.  A  young  man  who  has  lived  happily 

126 


EPIC    POEMS 

with  his  wife  for  three  years  is  lying  on  his  death- 
bed, watched  day  and  night  by  his  faithful  wife, 

A  Jewish  daughter  she — her  duty  knows — 

The  couple  are  childless,  and,  to  aggravate  the  mis- 
ery of  the  woman  about  to  become  a  widow,  a  son 
had  been  born  to  her  mother-in-law  a  short  time 
before.  To  obviate  the  necessity  of  the  young 
woman's  waiting  for  the  child  to  grow  up,  in  order 
to  give  her  Halizah,  the  dying  husband  is  deli- 
cately requested  by  his  mother  to  divorce  his  wife 
before  his  death.  He  consents.  The  "  enlight- 
ened Rabbi  "  is  sent  for  to  perform  the  ceremony. 
He  is  a  practical  man ;  he  knows  "  two  hundred  are 
more  than  one  hundred,"  and  insists  upon  being 
paid  two  hundred  roubles  for  his  services.  The 
dying  man's  parents  beg  him  to  take  one  hundred, 
all  their  fortune  having  been  spent  in  a  vain  effort 
to  save  their  son.  The  Rabbi  insists  upon  two 
hundred,  but  while  they  are  haggling, 

"  Kind  Death  "  sets  Jonah  free 
From  bickering  and  strife, 
From  Rabbis  and  from  laws, 

and  the  unhappy  widow  was  left  to  wait  for  her 
infant  brother-in-law's  Halizah. 

It  must  be  acknowledged  that  the  Rabbi  pictured 
127 


LEON   GORDON 

in  the  poem  is  not  only  unnatural,  but  impossible, 
and  that  the  entire  episode  does  not  present  a  scene 
from  real  life.  It  is  rather  a  criticism  of  the  insti- 
tution of  Halizah  carried  to  its  extreme  logical 
conclusion.  The  poet  intends  to  show  what  havoc 
such  an  effete  institution  may  cause  in  unfavorable 
circumstances.  After  all,  though  the  Rabbi  is  im- 
possible, many  women  were  actually  ruined  in  simi- 
lar cases,  when  the  husband  died  without  divorcing 
his  wife,  and  against  such  actualities  the  poem  was 
directed.  The  Rabbi  might  have  been  omitted 
without  injuring  the  poem;  on  the  contrary,  the 
omission  would  have  strengthened  the  impression. 
Possibly  Gordon  had  a  special  so-called  "  enlight- 
ened Rabbi  "  in  view,  against  whom  he  directed  the 
last  stanza.  This  poem  was  written  in  1879,  in 
St.  Petersburg,  after  the  author's  return  from  exile. 
Does  he  refer  to  the  Rabbi  by  whose  partisans  he 
was  denounced  and  thrown  into  prison?  The  fact 
that  he  selected  an  "  enlightened  Rabbi  "  instead 
of  an  every-day  Orthodox  Rabbi,  such  as  he  usually 
criticises,  would  lend  color  to  the  supposition.108 

"  A  Wagon's  Axle,"  written  in  1867,  is  a  tragi- 
comedy of  the  actual  Jewish  life  of  his  time;  and, 
as  in  the  poems  analyzed  above,  presents  the 
Rabbi  in  an  unfavorable  light.  Eliphelet,  a  coach- 

128 


EPIC   POEMS 

man,  sits  down  with  his  wife  and  children  to  the 
Seder,  on  the  first  night  of  Passover,  and  after 
skimming  through  the  Haggadah,  he  prepares 
himself  for  the  sumptuous  meal  with  pleasant  an- 
ticipations. Suddenly  a  cry  of  anguish  rings  out 
from  the  kitchen,  and  Sarah,  his  wife,  announces 
the  terrible  news  that  "  a  grain  has  been  found  in 
the  soup !  "  She  makes  ready  to  go  to  the  Rabbi, 
but  her  husband  threatens  her  with  his  fist,  and  she 
desists.  He  had  worked  so  hard  all  winter  to  pre- 
pare for  the  Passover,  and  now  all  his  labor  is  to 
be  destroyed  in  an  instant !  Sarah  does  not  touch 
the  food;  her  husband  and  the  children  eat  it,  but 
the  joy  of  the  holiday  is  gone.  On  the  next  day 
Sarah  finds  another  grain  in  the  pot.  She  cannot 
bear  "  the  weight  of  two  grains,"  and  she  hastens 
to  consult  the  Rabbi,  who,  by  the  single  word 
"  leaven,"  destroys  all  her  hopes,  and  prohibits  the 
use  both  of  the  food  and  the  dishes.  The  poor 
woman  is  afraid  to  go  home,  remembering  the 
threats  of  violence  made  by  her  husband  the  night 
before.  The  Rabbi  sends  two  public  officers  im  to 
arrest  Eliphelet,  and  fines  him.  But  henceforth 
the  peace  of  the  family  is  broken.  Eliphelet  mal- 
treats his  wife  for  a  time,  and  then  divorces  her. 
Trivial  and  incomprehensible  as  all  this  may 
129 


LEON   GORDON 

seem  to  men  of  modern  days,  it  forms  part  of  the 
tragedy  of  Russian  Ghetto  life  in  the  days  of 
Nicholas  I.  The  poet  does  not  tell  the  incident  in 
a  mock-heroic  fashion;  he  describes  it  with  all  the 
feeling  and  pathos  of  a  tragedy.  Thinking  of  the 
Seder,  and  of  the  stereotyped  answer  in  response  to 
the  "  four  questions,"  the  poet  reflects: 

We  have  been  slaves — alas!     What  are  we  now? 
Do  we  not  fall  and  sink,  year  in,  year  out? 
Are  we  not  fettered  still,  are  we  not  bound 
By  superstition's  shackles  strong  and  stout? 

And  how  vividly  we  see  the  Seder: 

Thank  God !  all  is  prepared ;  the  wine  is  red ; 

Inviting  looks  the  round  unleavened  bread ; 

From  floor  to  ceiling  all  is  clean  and  bright; 

The  candles  shed  profuse  a  mellow  light; 

The  children  'round  the  board ;  and  full  of  cheer 

The  pious  wife  attends  now  there,  now  here; 

And  he,  arrayed  in  linen  tunic  white, 

Of  heart  content,  of  countenance  all  bright, 

Out  of  the  pictured  old  Haggadah  reads 

The  plagues,  the  exodus,  God's  wondrous  deeds; 

Asserts  that  soon  Elijah  the  divine 

Will  come  to  drink  with  them  his  cup  of  wine. 

(Poems,  iv,  p.  52.) 

What  a  picture  of  Jewish  idealism !     Unfortu- 
nately everything  is  soon  changed  after  the  terrible 

130 


EPIC    POEMS 

discovery  of  the  grain  in  the  soup.     Eliphelet  does 
not  finish  the  Haggadah,  and 

To  guard  the  Afikoman  he  forgot; 
The  pillows  stirred,  'twas  gone,  he  saw  it  not; 
Along  the  walls  fantastic  shadows  crept, 
And  secretly  the  peaceful  angels  wept. 
Slowly  died  the  candle's  flickering  flame; 
The  door  was  opened — no  Elijah  came. 

Eliphelet  avenges  himself  on  Sarah  for  going  to 
consult  the  Rabbi : 

He  visited  Sarah  as  he  had  said,10* 
And  did  unto  Sarah  as  he  had  spoken. 

And  after  the  divorce,  was  not  Sarah  justified  in 
wailing: 

A  wagon's  axle  settled  Bethar's  doom, 
Two  barley  grains  destroyed  my  home! 

Such  is  the  tragedy  of  Jewish  life! 

"  Rejoice  on  Thy  Festival  "  is  another  instance 
taken  by  the  poet  to  show  the  inconveniences  a 
strict  adherence  to  Rabbinical  laws  may  cause. 
Rabbi  Kalman,  a  Jew  from  the  Pale,  who  did  busi- 
ness in  Moscow  far  away  from  his  home,  was  in- 
formed by  his  wife  that  a  good  match  had  been 
proposed  for  their  daughter.  A  meeting  had  been 
agreed  on  for  the  intended  bride  and  groom  and 
the  parents  and  friends  for  the  second  day  of  Suk- 
kot,  and  she  requested  him  to  come  home  for  the 

131 


LEON    GORDON 

joyful  occasion.  Rabbi  Kalman  informed  his  wife 
that  he  would  arrive  home  on  the  seventh  day 
of  Sukkot,  and  started  out  from  Moscow.  The 
journey  was  long  and  tedious,  for  it  was  in  ante- 
railway  days.  The  poor  man  tried  his  best  to  be 
at  home  for  the  holidays;  in  fact,  he  had  come  to 
within  three  miles  of  his  place,  when  the  shadows 
of  night  told  him  that  the  holiday  had  begun. 
Unwilling  to  travel  even  the  short  distance  on  a 
holiday,  Rabbi  Kalman  was  forced  to  stop  over  in 
a  village  near  by.  He  reached  home  early  on  the 
morning  after  the  holiday,  only  to  find  his  wife 
and  his  daughter  sick  with  disappointment,  for  the 
groom  and  his  party  had  left,  disgusted  with  the 
unnecessary  delay  on  the  part  of  the  bride's  father. 
The  poet  purposely  exaggerated,  in  order  to 
show  the  inconvenience  of  the  Rabbinical  law  of 
"  limits."  The  moral  is  shown  in  the  lines: 

Two  thousand  paces!    how  much  woe  and  grief 
They  sudden  brought  unto  this  family  ....  (P.  69.) 

and 

Had  not  your  teachers  led  you  with  a  pillar  of  cloud,  you 
would  not  have  refrained  from  returning  home  after  dark:  for 
to  rejoice  on  a  festival  is  a  Biblical  law,  whereas  the  law  of 
"  limits  "  is  only  Rabbinic. 

For  Rabbi  Kalman,  however,  the  Rabbinical  ordi- 

132 


EPIC   POEMS 

nances  were  as  binding  as  the  Mosaic,  and  he  suf- 
fered martyrdom  for  them. 

The  last  poem  of  the  series,  "  The  Two  Josephs 
ben  Simon,"  surpasses  by  far  in  its  pathos,  realism, 
and  depth  of  feeling  any  poem  in  the  Hebrew  lan- 
guage. It  is  a  terrible  arraignment  of  the  Jewish 
Consistorial  boards  during  the  reign  of  Nicholas 
I.,  and  shows  at  the  same  time  the  attitude  of  the 
masses  towards  the  Maskilim,  the  men  of  the 
newer  school.  Joseph  ben  Simon  was  a  child- 
prodigy.  At  thirteen  he  was  famous  for  his  knowl- 
edge and  acumen  in  the  Talmud,  and  he  was  looked 
upon  as  the  future  light  of  Israel  in  the  Rabbinical 
sense.  But  Joseph  soon  realized  the  futility  of  a 
study  of  the  Talmud  only,  and  secretly  he  began 
to  indulge  in  secular  studies  also,  to  the  consterna- 
tion of  his  admirers.  His  father  attempted  to  dis- 
suade him  from  his  course ;  but  Joseph  maintained 
that  the  study  of  the  sciences  was  not  subversive  of 
Judaism.  He  soon  left  his  native  town,  and  went 
to  Padua  to  study  medicine. 

In  the  same  town  there  was  another  boy  of  Jo- 
seph's age,  Uri,  the  son  of  Johanan  the  shoemaker. 
He  was  a  wild  lad,  who  never  cared  to  study, 
though  his  father  tried  hard  to  make  a  Rabbi  of 
him.  By  the  age  of  nineteen  he  had  become  the 

133 


LEON   GORDON 

terror  of  the  town.  He  took  to  horse-dealing,  and 
engaged  in  questionable  undertakings.  Upon  be- 
ing rebuked  by  his  honest  father,  he  left  home  and 
disappeared. 

Rabbi  Shamgar,  the  head  of  the  Consistory,  now 
appears  on  the  scene.  The  board-rooms  are  de- 
scribed, with  Rabbi  Shamgar  sitting  in  judgment. 
It  was  the  time  of  conscription;  the  board  is  busy 
selecting  recruits,  taken  mostly  from  the  ranks  of 
the  poor;  the  rich  buy  exemptions  for  their  sons. 
One  woman  complains  of  the  abduction  of  her  only 
son  for  military  service;  but  Rabbi  Shamgar  finds 
that  she  belongs  to  the  family  of  a  man  who  has 
four  sons,  and  since  his  sons  are  scholars,  her  only 
son  has  to  be  the  scapegoat.  Other  people  come 
on  business,  to  get  passports  and  similar  things, 
and  every  one  is  attended  to  in  accordance  with  the 
bribe  he  offers.  Finally,  a  rough-looking,  stout, 
but  well-dressed  young  man  appears  and  asks  for  a 
passport.  He  is  Uri,  the  shoemaker's  son.  He 
speaks  arrogantly  and  impudently.  He  has  to  go 
abroad  on  "  business,"  and  must  have  a  passport. 
"  But,"  objects  Shamgar,  "  you  are  a  hidden 
one."  *  In  response,  the  applicant  draws  a  hun- 

*  Many  fathers,  to  save  their  sons  from  military  conscription 
under   Nicholas,   the   length   of   service   being  twenty-five   years, 

134 


EPIC    POEMS 

dred-rouble  note  from  his  pocket.  The  argument 
is  convincing  enough.  Rabbi  Shamgar  knits  his 
brow,  thinks  hard  for  a  few  minutes,  then  his  face 
lights  up:  he  has  discovered  a  way  out  of  the  diffi- 
culty. "  Some  three  years  ago,"  he  says,  "  a  young 
man  of  your  age  disappeared,  and  nobody  knows 
his  whereabouts.  I  will  therefore  issue  a  passport; 
only  you  have  to  assume  his  name."  Uri  consents 
readily;  he  pays  the  money,  and  leaves,  a  new  man, 
for  he  is  now  Joseph  ben  Simon.  Rabbi  Shamgar 
goes  to  the  synagogue  to  recite  the  afternoon 
prayer. 

Meanwhile,  the  real  Joseph  ben  Simon  was 
studying  diligently  in  Padua,  not  only  medicine,  but 
also  Jewish  branches.  He  was  an  idealist.  Medi- 
cine was  to  afford  him  his  livelihood;  for  the  rest  he 

refused  to  enroll  their  male  children  in  the  official  registers  at 
their  birth.  These  were  called  "  hidden  ones  "  ( D'oStfJ,  m  He- 
brew). Officially,  these  were  non-existent.  As  such  proceedings 
were,  of  course,  illegal,  the  "  hidden  ones "  were  always  at  the 
mercy  of  the  professional  informers,  who  constantly  demanded 
blackmail  in  payment  of  their  silence;  and  they  suffered  the 
further  disadvantage  of  being  unable  to  obtain  a  passport  legally. 
As  a  passport  is  absolutely  essential  to  freedom  of  movement  in 
Russia,  the  "  hidden  ones "  were  forced  to  apply  to  the  Con- 
sistorial  boards  for  the  documents.  The  latter  often  issued 
fraudulent  passports  in  the  name  either  of  the  dead  or  of 
absentees,  for  a  money  consideration,  of  course,  and  thus  caused 
such  tragedies  as  are  described  in  the  poem. 

135 


LEON    GORDON 

would  preach  and  teach  a  more  enlightened  Juda- 
ism, a  Judaism  more  in  harmony  with  philosophy. 
After  suffering  hardships  and  privations  for  five 
years,  he  reached  his  goal;  he  became  a  doctor  of 
medicine  and  philosophy.  He  hesitated  about  re- 
turning to  his  native  land.  But  the  thought  that 
the  people  there  needed  him  most,  and  the  news 
that  his  mother  was  sick,  banished  all  hesitation. 
With  his  documents  and  his  old  passport  in  his 
pocket,  he  started  home. 

The  train  roared  and  puffed,  and  Joseph,  tired 
and  weary,  fell  asleep.  In  his  dreams  he  saw  him- 
self as  a  Rabbi,  instituting  various  reforms  to 
lighten  the  life  of  his  people,  and  a  smile  of  satis- 
faction played  on  his  lips  when  he  heard  the  bless- 
ings showered  upon  him  by  his  followers.  He 
awoke  with  pleasant  emotions,  but  fell  asleep  again. 
A  disquieting  dream  came  to  torment  him.  He 
saw  himself  in  purgatory,  where  all  who  ridiculed 
the  Rabbis  were  punished.  Among  them  he  found 
Elisha  ben  Abuya,  Acosta,  Spinoza,  various  Jewish 
Maskilim,  such  as  Levinsohn,  Shatzkes,  Erter,  and 
Lebensohn;  and  he  heard  a  voice  proclaiming  his 
own  doom.  He  awoke  with  a  start.  Meanwhile 
the  train  was  rushing  on.  A  little  more  puffing  and 
roaring  of  the  engine,  and  Joseph  found  himself 

130 


EPIC    POEMS 

on  Russian  soil.  Officers  demanded  passports; 
Joseph  showed  his,  and  trembled  at  the  impression 
it  made  on  the  officer.  He  thought  it  was  be- 
cause his  passport  was  out  of  date,  and  declared 
himself  ready  to  pay  the  prescribed  fine.  The  offi- 
cer, however,  arrested  him  on  the  charge  of  mur- 
der. His  fellow-passengers  could  hardly  realize 
that  their  quiet,  apparently  nai've,  fellow-traveller, 
whom  they  thought  to  be  a  doctor,  was  a  murderer  I 
In  prison  Joseph  was  told  that  some  months  before 
a  horse-dealer  had  tried  to  smuggle  a  drove  of 
horses  across  the  boundary  line.  The  officers  over- 
took him ;  a  fight  ensued,  and  in  the  melee  that  fol- 
lowed one  officer  was  killed  by  the  desperate  smug- 
gler. He  himself  escaped,  but  among  his  effects 
his  passport  was  found,  and  the  description  and 
name  tallied  with  those  of  the  present  prisoner.  In 
vain  Joseph  protested  that  he  had  never  dealt  in 
horses,  and  that  he  had  been  out  of  Russia  these 
five  years.  He  was  kept  in  prison  for  some  time, 
and  then  in  company  with  other  criminals  he  was 
driven  on  foot  to  his  native  town  for  trial.  The 
convoy,  upon  arrival  there,  met  a  funeral  proces- 
sion. The  soldiers,  according  to  law,  presented 
arms  in  honor  of  the  dead.  Joseph  recognized  his 
father  as  the  chief  mourner,  and  wanted  to  throw 

137 


LEON    GORDON 

himself  on  the  bier;  but  the  soldiers  gruffly  forced 
him  back  into  the  line  of  march.  Joseph  was  found 
guilty  because  the  Consistorial  authorities,  especi- 
ally Rabbi  Shamgar,  deposed  that  there  was  only 
one  Joseph  ben  Simon  in  the  town,  who  had  long 
ago  acquired  a  bad  reputation  as  a  heretic.  There 
was  nobody  to  take  Joseph's  part,  since  he  was 
considered  a  heretic.  He  was  sentenced  to  hard 
labor.  Rabbi  Shamgar  continued  as  the  head  of 
the  Consistory. 

The  poem  begins  with  a  scathingly  sarcastic 
enumeration  of  the  powers  of  Rabbi  Shamgar,  who 
is  described  with  all  Divine  attributes,  for,  by  doc- 
toring the  official  registers,  he  changed  men  into 
women,  young  into  old,  gave  childless  parents  a 
half-dozen  sons,  and  vice  versa.  These  miracles, 
however,  happen  to  the  rich  only,  who  have  to  pay 
for  them. 

Joseph's  youth  is  described : 

The  Talmud  he  read  at  six, 
The  Tosafists  at  seven, 
And  casuistry  at  eight 

At  thirteen  he  was  a  Talmudist : 

In  the  Talmudic  sea 
The  leviathan  was  he, 

138 


EPIC    POEMS 

and  every  rich  man  who  had  a  daughter  of  mar- 
riageable age 

Schemed  to  bait  the  leviathan. 

A  realistic  description  of  the  synagogue-court  is 
next  given  (Canto  iv)  ;  it  is  so  realistic,  in  fact, 
that  we  do  not  care  to  see  it.  Brainin  says  10S  that 
such  verses  would  not  be  written  by  a  poet  in  any 
other  language.  Perhaps;  but  then  no  other  peo- 
ple presents  such  a  sight.  Gordon's  picture  is, 
however,  undoubtedly  overdrawn. 

The  poet  takes  occasion  in  Canto  v  to  apostro- 
phize the  extraordinary  desire  for  study,  character- 
istic of  Jewish  boys : 

How  strong  art  thou,  all-conquering  desire 
To  know,  in  youthful  Jewish  minds  ingrained! 
Upon  the  shrine  thou  art  the  constant  fire  .... 


Upon  the  roads  to  Jewish  schools  that  lead, 

Behold  poor  youngsters  hastening  with  all  speed.     (P.  101.) 

And  what  awaits  them  there?  A  life  of  need 
And  misery,  the  cold,  bare  floor  their  bed — 
Such  is  the  Law — and  what  if  one  fall  dead ! 

And  again,  speaking  of  the  Russians  who  glory 
in  their  Lomonosoff,  a  self-made  poet: 

How  many  Lomonosoffs  in  the  Pale? 
139 


LEON    GORDON 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  in  Canto  vi  that  all  the 
reforms  Joseph,  or  rather  Gordon,  would  like  to 
see  instituted  are  of  such  a  character  that  they 
would  not  in  the  least  infringe  upon  even  Rabbin- 
ical Judaism,  and  yet  would  lift  a  burden  from  off 
the  shoulders  of  the  people.  Even  for  advocating 
such  trifling  reforms  Joseph  was  looked  upon  as  a 
heretic ! 

The  death  and  funeral  of  Joseph's  mother  are 
drawn  by  the  hands  of  a  master,  and  touch  us  to 
the  heart  with  their  genuine  pathos.  Especially 
vivid  are  the  lines : 

From  down  the  street  there  comes  a  rattling  din 

Of  pennies  jingling  in  a  box  of  tin, 

With  "  Charity  from  death  saves  "  the  refrain ; 

The  purses  open,  shut  the  shops  remain, 

And  sighs  escape,  and  tears  profuse  are  shed: 

They  count,  the  tears,  that  flow  for  righteous  dead. 

But  how  terrible  was  the  meeting  of  the  two  pro- 
cessions : 

While  passed  the  mourners'  train  with  solemn  tread, 
Another  column  down  the  road  was  led, 

and  at  this  very  moment : 

"Methinks,"  the  sexton  said,   "  the  body  stirred 
And  trembling  shook  as  though  it  were  alive." 

Vain  fright! 

140 


EPIC    POEMS 

We  are  shocked  at  seeing  Shamgar's  hypocrisy, 
who,  after  issuing  the  false  passport  and  having 
received  the  bribe, 

The  "  Hundred  "  in  his  pocket  stored  away, 
And  went  into  the  Synagogue — to  pray.     (P.  96.) 

But  how  ironical  and  pathetic  are  the  lines : 

....  The  pious  souls 

Presented   him    [Joseph],  with  kind   and  gracious  look, 

Phylacteries  and  a  little  Prayer  Book. 

Indeed,   what  other  comfort  could  the  unhappy 
Joseph  find  ?  .  .  .  . 

In  his  r envoi,  Al  Ye'esham  Yehudah,  "  Blame 
not  Judah,"  the  poet  acknowledges  that  the  pic- 
tures he  has  drawn  are  not  at  all  agreeable;  nay, 
more,  he  says: 

My  own  soul  also  bleeds,  and  heavy  is  my  heart, 
At  my  creations'  sinking  in  a  sea  of  woe.     (P.  132.) 

But  he  excuses  himself  in  the  lines : 

Am  I  to  blame  if  the  life  of  brother  Jews 
Reflects  but  gloomy,  darkly  colored  hues; 
And  that  in  every  station,  high  or  low, 
I  hear  but  moans,  and  see  the  tears  that  flow? 

In  a  letter  of  October  27,  1876,'°"  he  says: 
"  Perhaps  my  poem  Ashakka  de-Rispak  will  bring 
it  about  that  in  the  holes  wherein  Jews  hide  them- 

141 


LEON    GORDON 

selves,  a  family  shall  not  be  ruined  because  of  a 
*  suspicion  of  leaven  '  ;  perhaps  We-Somahta  be- 
Hageka  will  show  the  simple-minded  Rabbi  Kal- 
man  or  his  like  the  foolishness  of  distressing  him- 
self unnecessarily  in  order  to  fulfil  the  command- 
ment '  Thou  shalt  rejoice  on  thy  holidays '  ; 
perhaps  '  Stuffed  Turkeys '  will  stir  up  the  Rabbis 
to  relax  the  rigor  of  the  dietary  laws;  perhaps 
Kozo  shel  Yod,  which  I  wrote  with  blood  and 
tears,  will  save  some  Jewish  woman  in  the  future 
from  lifelong  ruin  through  the  ignorance  of  the 
Rabbinical  writers  of  grammar  and  the  Bible;  per- 
haps '  The  Two  Josephs  ben  Simon  '  will  prevent 
a  Jewish  publican  from  issuing  a  false  passport." 
And  who  shall  say  that  his  poems  did  not  have 
the  desired  effect,  did  not  open  the  eyes  of  hundreds 
and  thousands  of  his  readers?  Mr.  Brainin  may 
be  right  in  holding 107  that  there  is  nothing  new  in 
what  Gordon  says  about  the  Rabbis.  But  a  poet 
need  not  always  be  proclaiming  something  new, 
like  Mr.  Brainin's  ideal  poet,  who  "  sees  from  one 
end  of  the  world  to  the  other."  Gordon,  by  giv- 
ing popular  ideas  a  poetic  garb,  makes  them  more 
striking,  more  impressive.  Had  Gordon  followed 
Brainin's  suggestion  as  to  what  a  poet  should  be, 
he  would  be  unknown  to-day,  and  could  have  done 

142 


EPIC    POEMS 

nothing  towards  the  awakening  of  his  people. 
Fortunately  Gordon  knew  his  people  better;  he 
knew  what  would  impress  them,  what  would  ap- 
peal to  them.  Hence  his  fame,  hence  his  success, 
hence  the  good  he  helped  to  accomplish.  Nor  is 
Smolensky  right  in  saying  that  his  "  Epics  of  the 
Present "  are  only  of  temporary  value."8  Many 
generations  will  come  and  pass  before  the  reforms 
advocated  by  Gordon  will  be  brought  to  realiza- 
tion. While  the  abuses  he  castigates  endure  in 
Judaism,  these  poems  cannot  fail  to  be  of  value. 
And  when  the  golden  days  of  true  reform  shall 
have  come,  they  will  be  read  with  renewed  interest, 
because  they  will  be  recognized  as  having  con- 
tributed a  great  deal  towards  making  the  era  of 
reform  a  possibility. 


143 


CHAPTER  VI 

GORDON  THE  POET 

LYRIC  POEMS 

As  a  lyric  poet  Gordon  shows  his  powers  only 
when  expressing  his  feelings  in  relation  to  his 
people.  His  poems  of  nature  are  beautiful,  more 
because  of  the  language  than  the  contents.  The 
poems  "  Spring  "  and  "  The  Lord's  Feast "  are 
didactic  rather  than  descriptive.  The  gist  of  the 
former  is:  every  feeling  man  is  bound  in  love  to 
nature  and  to  God.  The  revival  in  nature  symbol- 
izes resurrection  and  immortality  to  him.  He 
philosophizes  as  to  the  origin  of  nature,  sings 
praises  to  God,  and  encourages  man  not  to  fear 
death.  As  a  rule,  nature  descriptions  are  not  Gor- 
don's strong  point.  Of  the  twelve  sonnets  in  the 
first  volume  of  his  works  only  the  eleventh  and 
twelfth  are  Jewish;  the  poet  bewails  in  them  the 
death  of  two  Russian  Jewish  periodicals,  "  Dawn  " 
and  "  Zion."  The  rest  are  rich  in  rhetoric  and 
mild  satire,  but  lack  feeling  and  depth.  In  his 

144 


LYRIC    POEMS 

translation  of  Byron's  Hebrew  Melodies,  and  of 
some  poems  by  Schiller,  he  shows  himself  the 
master  of  the  Hebrew  language  that  he  was,  the 
translations  appearing  like  original  poems.  Gor- 
don, the  poet,  revealed  himself  in  his  Jewish  lyrics, 
for  his  heart  is  bound  up  with  that  of  the  people. 
A  poet,  subject  to  varying  moods,  he  is  swayed 
alternately  by  feelings  of  joy  and  despair.  He  had 
dedicated  himself  to  the  Hebrew  muse  from  his 
earliest  youth,  as  stated  above : 

In  early  childhood,  ere  from  my  brow 
The  dew  of  youth  was  dried,  a  vow  I  vowed. 
The  Hebrew  Tongue's  eternal  slave  am  I. 
My  life  with  hers  fore'er  be  interwoven! 

He  sings  because  he  cannot  help  singing,  as  the 
German  poet  says, 

Wenn   ich   n'tcht  sinnen   und  dichten  soil, 
So  ist  das  Leben  mir  kein  Leben  mehr. 

So  Gordon: 

My  soul    and   character  I  cannot  change, 
Thus  God  created  me,  thus  I  remain; 
The  muses  stir  me,  and  I  must  obey; 
As  I  have  sung,  I  will  yet  sing  again. 

(Poems,  i,  p.  xxii.) 

145 


LEON    GORDON 

He  calls  upon  his  people  to  arise  from  their  leth- 
argy: 

Arise,  my  people,  sleep  no  more, 

The  night  is  fled,  behold  the  dawn.     (Ibid.,  p.  44.) 

This  Eden  land  with  open  arms  awaits  thee, 

Her  sons  shall  henceforth  as  a  brother  hail  thee.     (Ibid.) 

Alas,  it  proved  otherwise ;  but  the  signs  of  the  times 
in  1863  looked  favorable;  all  that  seemed  neces- 
sary was  to  be 

At  home  a  Jew,  without  a  man.     (Ibid.,  p.  45.) 

He  refutes  the  imputation  that  the  Jews  are  inca- 
pacitated for  knowledge  and  education ;  and  he  ap- 
peals to  his  brethren : 

To  knowledge  give  your  life. 

But  the  poet  does  not  always  find  himself  in  the 
happy  mood  of  hopefulness.  From  the  height  of 
the  heavens,  whither  he  was  carried  on  the  wings 
of  his  fancy,  he  sees  a  panoramic  view  of  the  con- 
dition of  his  people.  He  beholds  the  pillars  of 
Judaism  trembling,  on  the  point  of  collapse,  and 
the  youth  escaping  through  the  windows ;  the  dingy 

Heder  [school-room]  where  the  youth  are  slaughtered, 
146 


LYRIC    POEMS 

young  men  sinking  in  the  "  sea  of  the  Talmud  "; 
the  blind  old  man  who  is 

A  Rabbi  blessing  his  people  with  a  new,  rigorous  interpretation; 

the  heads  of  the  Consistories  emptying  the  pockets 
of  the  people;  the  confusion  of  ideas  and  ideals, 
one  not  understanding  the  other;  and,  above  all,  a 
flock,  the  Eder  Adonai,  "The  Lord's  Flock," 
without  pasture,  led  by  blind  goats,  and  its  wool 
sheared.  He  realizes 

That  even  on  high  the  rich  are  respected ; 

he  sees  also  a  tablet  with  letters  erased  representing 
his  own  youthful  ideals,  and  he  can  no  longer  con- 
tain himself : 

....  Alas! 

Of  all  my  dreams  not  one  has  come  to  pass, 
Purification,  education, 
Jewish  national  restoration, 

and  he  falls  from  heaven  to  earth  ("On  the  Moon 
at  Night").  The  same  undercurrent  of  despair 
runs  through  the  poem  Le-mi  ani  Omel,  "  Whom 
Do  I  Strive  for?  "  A  vague  consciousness  of  the 
futility  of  his  work  steals  upon  him.  Who  will 
understand  him,  who  will  appreciate  him?  The 

147 


LEON    GORDON 

old  generation  looks  with  suspicion  upon  poetry 
and  the  poet — 

There's  death  in  song — in  rhetoric  heresy, 
One  must  not  with  a  poet  share  his  roof; 

the  tender  daughters  of  Zion  are  not  given  a  He- 
brew education,  for 

A  woman's  Torah — 'tis   apostasy; 

the  new  generation  has  gone  to  the  opposite  ex- 
treme, and 

With  rapid  strides  they  rush  ahead, 
And  who  can  tell  how  long,  how  far? 
Perchance  whence  there  is  no  return  .... 

For  whom,  then,  does  he  sing?  He  consoles  him- 
self with  the  thought  that  there  are  still  left  "  one 
in  a  city,  two  in  a  province  "  who  do  not  ridicule 
the  songs  of  Zion.  For  these  he  sings;  they  will 
understand  him ;  them  he  embraces  with  tears  and 
exclaims : 

Alas!  who  can  divine,  who  can  assure 
That  I  am  not  the  last  of  Zion's  bards, 
That  you  who  read  are  not  the  last  to  read? 

(P.  104.) 

Such  feelings  of  despair  cling  to  him  continually. 
Even  in  the  course  of  a  satirical  poem  he  cannot  for- 
get the  misfortunes  of  his  people,  and  a  cry  of 

148 


LYRIC    POEMS 

anguish  escapes  him.  The  poet  holds  his  pen  in  his 
hand.  What  shall  the  theme  of  his  poem  be  ?  Va- 
rious subjects  suggest  themselves  to  him,  and  one  of 
these  is: 

Shall  I  this  ink-drop  towards  heaven  throw 
Into  a  flood  to  turn,  and  drown  my  tears 
Upon  my  people's  ocean  depth  of  woe? 

The  ink-drop  on  his  pen  dries  up,  but  unfortu- 
nately not  his  despair.  What  are  we?  he  asks  in 
1  The  Lord's  Flock  " — a  nation,  a  people,  a  race, 
a  community?  Seeing  the  various  ways  in  which 
the  Jews  are  exploited  by  their  oppressors,  who 
"  skin  our  hide,  shear  our  wool,  and  lead  us  in  a 
wilderness  where  there  is  no  pasture,"  he  comes  to 
the  conclusion : 

Not   a  people   nor  community 
Are  we;  we  are — a  flock. 

Thus  also  in  "  The  Departure  of  the  Shekinah." 
The  Shekinah  departs  because  it  can  no  longer  en- 
dure the  cruelties  and  injustice  rampant  in  the 
"  vale  of  tears  " ;  it  stops  a  few  minutes  with  the 
poet  and  whispers  to  him : 

My   sympathies   to   thee,    unhappy   bard, 
My  fellow-sufferer,  like  me  aggrieved; 
Thy  bloom  evaporates  for  lack  of  air, 
Thy  soul  is  stunted  for  the  lack  of  space. 
149 


LEON    GORDON 

For  what  is  the  fate  of  the  poet,  after  all? 

Alas,   for  thee,  O  thou  who   dreamest  dreams. 
Thy  life  is  one  long  chain  of  bitterness; 
Thou   sleepest,   dreamest — momentary  peace — 
How  breaks  thy  heart  at  the  awakening! 

(Poems,  i,  pp.  113-14.) 

How,  then,  can  the  poet  sing  of  joy  and  happiness? 
"  In  my  youth,"  he  says  in  Ba-Alot  ha-Shahar,  "At 
Dawn,"1  "  I  used  to  rise  with  the  dawn,  invoke  my 
muse,  and  sing  of  love,  of  friendship  and  delight, 
of  freedom,  and  hope,  and  comfort."  But  a 
change  came  over  the  vision  of  his  dream.  For 

Ere  yet  the  morn  in  glory  rose, 

While  yet  I  tuned  my  harp's  sweet  string, 

A  change  came  over  me,  alas! 

I  can  but  wail — I  cannot  sing! 

For  frightful  dreams  I  saw  by  night, 

I  saw  my  people — horrid  sight! 

He  saw  the  lowliness  of  his  people,  their  numer- 
ous bruises,  their  false  friends  and  evil  teachers, 
sources  of  their  poverty,  and  his  life  became  em- 
bittered: 

No  more  my  joyous  strains  shall  ring; 
Of  freedom,  light,  I  must  despair — 
Eternal  servitude  I  sing, 
I  dream  disgrace,  polluted  air. 

150 


LYRIC    POEMS 

The  rhymes  which  from  my  pen-point  flow 
Are  tear-drops  for  my  nation's  woe. 

Henceforth  my  muse  is  raven  black: 
Each  word  a  curse ;  each  phrase  a  dirge ! 

And  yet  Lilienblum  and  Mordecai  Cohen  say  that 
Gordon  was  not  a  national  poet.  Verily,  the  ways 
of  the  critic  are  strange. 

The  riots  of  1881  called  forth  two  poems  from 
Gordon,  the  one,  "  We  Will  Go,  both  Young  and 
Old,"  breathing  defiance;  the  second,  "  Sister  Ru- 
hamah,"  consolation.  In  the  former  he  says : 

We  were  one  people,  one  we  shall  remain — 
Out  of  the  selfsame  well  our  course  was  hewn; 
Both  grief  and  joy  we  shared  them  all  alike 
In  exile  these  twenty  centuries. 

And  even  though 

The  storm  rages,  winds  terrific  howl, 

The  foaming  waves  up  to  the  throat  have  reached, 

we  will  not  give  up  the  fight,  but 


Yet,  if 


To  God  we  cling  and  to  His  Law, 
The  holy  tongue  we'll  not  forget  .... 


By  God's  decree  to  wander  we  are  doomed, 
We  go  both  young  and  old. 

151 


LEON   GORDON 

In  a  more  passionate  and  vehement  tone,  the 
poem  "  Sister  Ruhamah  "  is  one  of  the  strongest 
and  most  pathetic  of  Gordon's  lyrics.  Not  allowed 
to  speak  freely,  the  poet  dedicates  his  lines  to  the 
"  Daughter  of  Jacob  whom  Ben-Hamor  has  de- 
filed "  (an  allusion  to  Gen.  xxxiv)  ;  but  the  symbol 
is  well  understood,  and  is  the  more  appealing.  He 
begins  with  words  of  condolence : 

Why  wailest  thou,  O  sister  dear? 
And  wherefore  do  thy  spirits  droop  ? 
Thy  rosy  cheeks  why  wan  and  sear? 
Thou  wast  defiled  by  a  bestial  troop! 
If  fists  prevail,  if  cowards  assault, 
O  sister  dear,  is  that  thy  fault? 

After  showing  her  that  she  had  not  been  rendered 
impure  by  the  bestiality  of  her  assailants,  since  the 
very  blood  they  spilled  will  mark  them  as  Cain  was 
marked  with  the  blood  of  Abel,  he  finds  a  melan- 
choly consolation  in  her  dishonor: 

....  I  patient  bore 
With  aching  heart  and  body  sore 
Afflictions,  pains  which  did  befall; 
Yet  hoped,  nor  left  ray  land  withal — 
But  thy  disgrace  I  cannot  bear, 
Come  hence,  come  home,  O  sister  dear. 

And  he  ends  by  saying  that  since  we  have  neither  a 

152 


LYRIC    POEMS 

house  nor  a  mother,  let  us  go  to  another  inn,  let  us 
go  to  the  land  where  freedom  reigns  supreme, 
where  no  man  is  ashamed  of  his  nation  or  of  his 
God. 

But  to  return  to  his  personal  poems.     In  the 

*  The  solution  that  Gordon  suggests  in  his  poem  is  evidently 
emigration  to  America,  and  not  to  Palestine.  The  following 
quotation  from  a  letter  written  to  M.  Gordon  in  1885  will  throw 
some  light  on  Gordon's  attitude  towards  Zionism.  In  response 
to  Lilienblum's  criticism,  that  he  did  not  sufficiently  bewail  the 
afflictions  of  Israel  (referring  to  the  riot  of  1881),  and  that  he 
did  not  sing  in  honor  of  Zionism,  he  says  in  his  letter:  "The 
reason  I  did  not  write  any  Jeremiad  on  the  riot  was  because 
I  did  not  see  any  use  in  it.  Have  we  not  enough  lamentations? 
and  will  lamentations  in  Hebrew  affect  our  enemies  who  don't 
read  Hebrew  anyhow? 

Why   preach   to   Jews?    They   know   their   misery. 

Unto  the  nations  preach,  and  let  them  hear 

And  tremble  .... 

It  is  false  that  I  am  opposed  to  the  ideal  of  a  national  resur- 
rection. Like  all  faithful  and  loyal  Jews  I  desire  to  see  the 
salvation  of  my  people ;  but  I  wish  this  redemption  to  be  com- 
plete, not  merely  a  deliverance  from  the  yoke  of  the  nations,  to 
fall  beneath  a  more  terrible  yoke,  that  of  ignorance.  How  can 
a  nation  exist  without  civilization?  Our  fathers  escaped  from 
Egypt  and  took  along  their  silver  and  gold,  but  not  their  dark- 
ness and  plagues  ....  If  we  are  to  leave  Europe  without  taking 
along  its  civilization,  what  is  the  good  of  leaving  at  all?  It 
is  better  to  perish  in  slavery  than  to  lead  the  supposedly  free 
life  of  the  savage.  These  are  the  reasons  why  I  did  not  write 
any  poems  on  the  recent  events.  At  any  rate,  silence  is  not 
opposition.  Secret  love  is  sometimes  better  than  open  love." 
(Letters,  ii,  pp.  113,  114.) 

153 


LEON   GORDON 

poem  entitled,  "  On  my  Departure  from  Tels," 
written  in  1872,  the  poet  enumerates  his  exertions 
on  behalf  of  his  people  and  ends  with  self-gratula- 
tion: 

And  s>o  six  years  my  brethren  have  I  served, 

And  go  without  reward ;  but  not  in  vain.* 

My  labors  and  the  duties  never  swerved: 

Their  children's  children  through  my  work  will   gain. 

But  In  the  following  poem,  Mahalat  ha-Zikkaron, 
his  despair  steals  upon  him  again.  He  addresses 
himself  to  Purah,  Lord  of  Oblivion,  and  begs  him 
to  cause  him  to  forget  his  former  ideals.  In  this 
poem  Gordon  shows  himself  iconoclastic.  In  his 
youth  he  had  awaited  the  arrival  of  the  Messiah 
every  day;  he  did  not  come.  He  had  hoped  that 
the  Haskalah  would  prove  a  blessing;  it  proved 
a  failure.  The  Hebrew  language  used  to  be  his 
delight,  for  he  thought  that 

The  nation   revives  with  its  tongue's   renaissance,  f 

*  An  allusion  to  Exod.  xxi.  2,  n. 

fin  his  article  Dibre  Shalom  we-Emet  (Ha-Maggid,  ii,  pp. 
13-14),  under  the  pseudonym  "Don  Gabriel,"  Gordon  takes 
the  famous  bibliographer  Steinschneider  to  task  for  his  dis- 
paragement of  modern  Hebrew  literature  (Ozar  Nehmad,  ii, 
Letter  5,  and  Ha-Mazkir,  no.  4,  pp.  7-9)  and  says:  "You  cannot 
tolerate  a  man  whose  words  are  not  after  your  own  taste  and 
that  of  your  country.  You  forget  that  different  countries  have 
different  needs.  Moreover,  you  prefer  the  most  trivial  literary 

154 


LYRIC    POEMS 

and,  like  a  lover,  he  found  pleasure  in  her  speech, 
in  her  every  expression ;  even  more, 

She   was   my   altar,   nay,   my   goddess   she. 

This  hope  was  also  doomed  to  disappointment.  If 
he  could  only  forget  his  former  dreams !  But  he 
feels  there  is  no  hope,  unless  "  by  means  of  his 
epitaph." 

To  this  appeal  Purah  suggests  drunkenness  or 

fragment,  provided  it  be  ancient  and  Oriental,  to  the  most  finished 
product  of  the  present.  Every  writer  must  be  a  '  digger,'  and  all 
scholars  antiquarians."  His  dislike  of  antiquarians  is  further 
emphasized  in  his  biting  satire  Ha-Rakab  le-Bet  Yehudah  ("The 
Rottenness  in  the  House  of  Judali"),  aimed  against  Elijah 
Harkavy.  In  the  same  article  he  takes  exception  to  the  state- 
ment of  Jost  (All.  Zeit.  des  Jud.,  1853,  p.  445),  that  one  cannot 
possibly  write  true  poetry  in  a  dead  language,  be  it  Hebrew  or 
Latin  or  Greek.  Gordon  insists  that  Hebrew  is  a  living  language, 
and  not  one  to  be  placed  in  the  same  category  with  Latin  or 
Greek.  He  emphasizes  this  thought  likewise  in  Kol  me-Erez 
Russia,  in  Ha-Maggid,  1857,  nos.  34-37. 

In  connection  with  this  it  may  be  of  interest  to  mention  Gor- 
don's visit  to  Zunz  in  1886.  On  his  way  to  Marienbad  in  search 
of  health,  he  stopped  over  in  Berlin  for  three  days,  and  took 
the  occasion  to  pay  his  respects  to  the  distinguished  savant.  He 
speaks  with  great  pleasure  of  this  visit,  and  relates  this  anecdote: 
"  When  I  introduced  myself  to  him,  he  knit  his  brow  as  if  trying 
to  recall  where  he  had  heard  the  name  before.  '  I  know  you 
are  one  of  the  writers,'  said  Zunz.  '  Wait  a  minute,  and  I'll  tell 
you  what  you  wrote  .  .  .  .'  'I  am  neither  a  philosopher  nor  a 
critic,'  I  replied.  '  I  am  only  a  poet.'  Had  I  lived  in  the  time 
of  Kalir,  Zunz  would  have  known  all  my  verses,  even  to  the 

155 


LEON    GORDON 

charms  as  an  antidote  to  unpleasant  recollections, 
to  which  the  poet  replies : 

I  am  a  Jew,  alas,  of  Naziritic  race, 

And  cannot  find  oblivion  or  mirth  in  drink — 

Alas !     I  am  a  man  of  intellect  and  think — 

No  confidence  in  magic  formulas  I  place. 

Woe  unto  me,  a  Jew  of  intellect  possessed ! 

Incurable  I  am  until  my  final  rest.    (Poems,  v,  p.  26.) 

Again  he  exclaims  in  despair: 

What   shall   I   speak   of,   brother,   what   announce? 
Woe  if  I  speak,  woe  if  I  hold  my  peace.     (Ibid.,  p.  36.) 

After  such  an  outburst  we  may  believe  with  him 
that 

The  Jeremiac  soul  perchance 

Within    my    frame    new    lodgment    found. 

In  his  calmer  moods  he  felt  the  sweet  consciousness 
of  duty  well  done : 

I,  chanticleer,  the  task  performed 

Which  from  on  high  fell  to  my  lot, 

Announced  the  near  approach  of  morn, 

I  lusty  crowed,  and  wearied  not.   (Poems,  v,  p.  28.) 

number  of  their  letters.  As  I  am  a  contemporary  of  Zunz,  he 
is  not  responsible,  and  need  not  remember  my  verses."  Gordon 
then  mentioned  the  titles  of  some  of  his  poems,  which  Zunz 
readily  recalled. 

156 


LYRIC    POEMS 

He  invokes  his  pens: 

Be  ye  my  witnesses  against  my  foes 

That  in  all  honesty  my  lines  I  penned; 

A  nation's  scribe,  my  duty  I  fulfilled, 

And  rest  nor  sought  nor  found  until  the  end. 

(Poems,  i,  p.  123.) 

Again,  in  a  poem  to  Dolitzky,  he  expresses  his  op- 
timism in  the  following  noble  apostrophe: 

Life  is  awful — death  is  dire 

Of  them  we  both  stand  not  in  dread ; 
We  both  are  not  mere  barren  trunks, 
Too  dull's  the  axe  to  strike  us  dead 

* 

Nor  you  nor  I  will  e'er  regret 

The  dreams  you  may  and  I  did  dream. 

'Twas  no  mirage  in  dreams  I  saw, 

Nor   shall    false    light   thine   eyes   deceive: 

Like  unto  me  the  grave  defy, 

Soon  I  am  gone — my  pen  receive !  .  .  .  . 

This  poem  was  written  July   14,   1892.     Three 
months  later  Gordon  was  no  more. 


157 


CONCLUSION 

The  preceding  chapters  will,  it  is  hoped,  have 
given  the  reader  a  comprehensive  idea  of  Gordon 
as  a  poet.  To  quote  all  the  noble  passages  of  Gor- 
don's poems  would  be  to  reproduce  the  six  volumes 
of  poetry  which  he  left  behind  him.  We  have 
dwelt  somewhat  at  length  upon  his  Jewish  poems, 
because  they,  more  than  the  others,  tend  to  show 
the  true  nature  of  our  poet,  though  his  "  Hannah 
after  Thirty  "  and  "  The  Cemetery,"  which  are 
human  and  express  Weltschmerz,  are  equally 
forcible  and  sympathetic.  The  latter  would,  in 
fact,  compare  with  Gray's  Elegy.  His  elegy, 
"  Oh,  Brother !  "  on  his  friend  Micah  Joseph 
Lebensohn,  written  in  1854,*  at  the  age  of  twenty- 

*  In  his  preface  to  this  poem,  Gordon  describes  the  state  of  his 
mind  at  the  beginning  of  his  career  in  1854:  "Those  were  the 
days  before  the  young  grapes  ripened ;  the  days  of  the  fledgling 
just  coming  out  of  its  shell.  A  ray  of  light  broke  forth,  and 
I  saw  that  the  day  was  approaching  for  me  to  go  out  in  the 
barn  and  seek  grain  for  myself;  but  my  feathers  had  not  yet 
sprouted,  and  my  beak  was  not  yet  sharp  enough.  The  walls 
of  the  Bet  ha-Midrash  began  to  totter,  and  I  was  standing 
with  one  foot  in  the  four  cubits  of  the  Halakah  and  with  the 

158 


CONCLUSION 

four,  in  the  form  of  a  morality  play,  is  a  master- 
piece of  poetic  expression,  and  shows  a  command 
of  language  hardly  equalled  in  Hebrew  literature. 
Of  his  one  hundred  and  twenty-three  fables,  thirty- 
six  of  which  are  original,  the  translations  surpass 
their  originals  in  beauty  of  style  and  diction,  and 
his  original  fables  are  rich  in  humor  and  pithy  in 
style.  His  epigrams  and  Almakams  are  keen  and 
brilliant. 

To  sum  up,  we  may  say,  and  with  truth,  that 
Gordon  stands  pre-eminent,  in  fact  unique,  in  He- 
brew literature,  as  a  master  of  language,  as  a  poet, 
and  as  a  humorist. 

Gordon  complains  of  lack  of  appreciation  on  the 
part  of  the  Hebrew-reading  public.  Thus,  in  a 
letter  written  in  1880  to  his  bosom  friend  Kaplan, 
he  says:  "  My  work  in  the  field  of  Hebrew  litera- 
ture, and  all  the  honor  of  the  new  Jewish  literature, 
are  vanity.  What  good  is  it  to  me  to  have  written 
my  verses,  seeing  that  nobody  appreciates  my 

other  in  the  regions  of  life.  When  I  began  to  walk  with  trem- 
bling knees,  to  shift  for  myself,  and  there  was  nobody  to  help 
or  support  my  tottering  steps,  I  met  Lebensohn,  ....  a  fledgling 
like  myself,  but  with  full-grown  feathers  and  a  stormy  spirit, 
and  he  showed  me  the  path  to  light.  Some  steps  we  plodded 
together,  he  leading  and  I  following.  Alas!  he  disappeared 
too  soon!  .  .  .  ."  (Letters,  i,  p.  277.) 

159 


LEON    GORDON 

work?    My  songs  are  like  the  crowing  of  the  cock, 

which  only  peasants  hear  and  understand 

Can  I  expect  praise  after  death,  who  have  been  al- 
most forgotten  while  living?  .  .  .  ."  Again,  de- 
scribing the  funeral  of  Nekrassoff,  Russia's  na- 
tional poet,  and  the  honors  showered  upon  him 
(December  30,  1879),  he  says:  uo  "  I  hoped  to  be 
a  Jewish  Nekrassoff;  I  also  hoped  to  break  the 
Jewish  chains  by  the  force  of  my  words  and  level 
the  wall  which  surrounds  my  people,  the  Chinese 
wall,  by  the  trumpets  of  poetry  [an  allusion  to 
Joshua  vi.  20].  But  my  people  do  not  under- 
stand, therefore  I  shall  not  die  the  death  of  poets 
like  Nekrassoff;  my  people  will  not  stone  me  with 
poems,  nor  crown  me  with  flowers;  would  that  they 
crown  me  not  with  thorns,  and  stone  not  my 
coffin!" 

Fortunately  Gordon  was  not  right  in  thus  com- 
plaining. These  letters  must  have  been  written 
under  the  impulse  of  momentary  disappointment. 
It  is  true  that  he  was  greatly  chagrined,  and  the 
peace  of  his  mind  was  disturbed  by  the  unfavorable 
and  unjust  criticism  of  M.  L.  Lilienblum,  who  was 
his  friend ;  for  he  thought  that  the  critic  voiced  the 
popular  sentiment.  But  Frishman's  brilliant  reply, 
and  the  polemics  of  other  writers  against  Lilien- 

160 


CONCLUSION 

blum,  should  have  reassured  him.  The  banquet 
given  in  his  honor  on  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary 
of  his  literary  labors,  in  1881,  and  the  numerous 
letters,  dispatches,  and  poems  of  congratulation 
proved  that  he  was  still  looked  upon  as  the  "  Lion 
of  the  Company."  And  when  the  Lion  was  dead,  a 
cry  of  sorrow  rang  out  from  the  hearts  of  his  ad- 
mirers— and  their  name  is  legion — not  only 
throughout  Russia,  but  wherever  there  was  a  Jew 
who  read  Hebrew,  for  every  one  felt  that,  with  the 
death  of  Gordon,  the  Haskalah  had  lost  one  of  its 
most  daring  champions,  and  the  Hebrew  muse  its 
darling  child. 

No  nobler  tribute  can  be  bestowed  on  any  poet 
than  that  which  Gustav  Karpeles  dedicated  to 
Gordon.  He  says,  in  part :  *" 

"To  the  Schiller  homestead  at  Weimar  a  poor  young  wanderer 
once  came  with  the  question,  'Does  Schiller  live  here?'  'Yes,' 
was  the  reply,  '  he  lived  here,  but  he  is  long  since  dead.'  '  Schil- 
ler dead !  '  The  poor  lad  could  not  comprehend  it.  '  Can  a 
Schiller  die?"  I  can  well  imagine  that  a  similar  incident  may 
occur  to  some  Jewish  youth  in  the  future.  Leon  Gordon  dead ! 
and  with  these  words  a  world  of  poetry  and  fancy  is  destroyed 
for  thousands  of  our  co-religionists. 

'He  was  a  great  poet;  a  pillar  of  fire  of  the  muses.' 
Soft  and  lovely,  pure  and  bright  rang  his  song  when  it  sang 
of  human  feelings.     A  ray  of  the  light  of  love  diffused  itself 

161 


LEON    GORDON 

through  his  poetic  creations,  and  gave  them  a  peculiar  character. 
He  was  not  a  mere  singer  of  lamentations,  but  a  leader  on  the 
path  of  progress  and  freedom.  His  vivid  perception  of  the  con- 
quests of  the  new  time  expressed  itself  in  his  songs,  pervaded 
by  profound  grief,  which  moved  every  feeling  heart  by  the  deli- 
cacy of  their  lofty  sentiment  and  by  the  spirit  of  truth;  also  the 
old  song  of  Zion  found  an  echo  in  his  poems. 

"  Poetry  with  him  was  not  a  profession,  but  a  holy  avocation. 
Pure  honesty  and  modesty,  which  never  offered  appearance  for 
life  and  truth,  distinguished  him  from  all  his  fellows.  Whatever 
he  expressed  in  song — the  sorrows  and  desires  of  love;  longing 
and  satisfaction ;  grief,  resignation,  and  cheerful  reliance — all 
sprang  out  of  the  well  of  pure  human  sympathy,  deep  enough 
to  penetrate  every  one,  bright  enough  to  sparkle  with  variegated 
opalescence.  In  everything  genuine  feeling  finds  expression;  one 
picture  suggests  another,  but  ardent,  sea-deep  love  for  his  people 
is  always  at  the  bottom.  Gordon's  art  consisted  in  combining 
diverse  elements  of  feelings  and  ideals  in  an  artistic  composition, 
in  the  shortest  space,  and  by  the  simplest  means.  .  .  .  Especially 
remarkable  is  the  fact  that  in  the  desolate  tyranny  in  which  he 
lived,  Gordon  was  a  poet  of  freedom.  This  nightingale  sang 
even  in  winter !  And,  indeed,  his  song  was  the  tone  of  the  night- 
ingale and  the  lark;  it  announced  the  dawn  of  a  new  era  to 
the  poor,  the  oppressed,  the  deceived." 

Dr.  Karpeles  concludes  with  a  comment  on  the 
last  line  of  Gordon's  poem,  "  A  Drop  of  Ink," 
which  reads :  "  While  I  was  thinking,  the  ink-drop 
dried  "— 

"  No,  my  dear  Gordon,  thy  pen  point  was  never  dry.     Thou 
L62 


CONCLUSION 

hadst  so  much  to  sing  and  say  about  all  the  misery  that  met  thee! 
And  thousands  listened  to  thy  song,  and  thousands  lived  with 
thee  in  the  world  of  thy  songs,  which  enchanted  them  like  a  mid- 
summer night's  dream ;  and  thousands  will  revive  and  be  elevated 
by  the  graces  of  thy  song,  the  music  of  thy  singing,  the  sound 
of  thy  words,  and  the  power  of  thy  feeling.  Thy  tomb  will  be 
set  in  their  souls,  and  they  will  remember  forever  thy  profound 
feeling,  thy  noble  conceptions,  thy  staunch  faithfulness,  thy  firm 
truthfulness,  thy  pure  love,  lofty  spirit,  and,  above  all,  thy  gen- 
uinely poetic  gifts." 

GORDON'S  "L'ENVOI" 

But  fifty  years  and  two  I  lived. 
Already  age  is  coming  fast. 
My  vigor  wanes,  my  eyes  are  dim, 
A  cloud  upon  my  spirit  settles. 

The  cloud,  the  shadow  'tis  of  death! 
I  see  him  drawing  nearer,  nearer.  .  .  . 
My  strength  gives  way  at  his  approach, 
Behold  him  aim  his  arrow  at  me ! 

Thy  two-edged  sword  is  but  a  straw  1 
I  fear  it  not;  it  cannot  fright  me! 
I  am  prepared,  O  death,  to  go 
To-day  or  whensoever  it  please  thee. 

My  work  is  done,  within  these  leaves 
Unto  my  people  my  soul  I  poured ; 
What  matters  if  my  day  is  done! 
Or  if  my  frame  to  ashes  turn? 


LEON    GORDON 

And  may  it  rot,  and  turn  to  dust. 
Within  these  leaves  my  soul  I  bound 
(For  leaves  possess  vitality) 
And  from  oblivion  thus  preserved  it. 

Destroy  my  skin,  my  flesh,  O  death, 
And  grind  me  unto  dust  and  clay 
(I  am  but  clay — the  potter  thou), 
My  soul  within  my  books  shall  live! 

And  some  may  joy  when  I  am  gone, 
Some  may  condemn  me,  stone  my  grave ; 
This  be  my  comfort:  one  perchance 
Will  see  my  soul  and  understand  me; 

Will  feel  my  thought  and  my  emotions, 
In  flesh  and  skin  my  spirit  clothe. 
And  if  my  people  gain  aught  by  it, 
Then  I  will  lie  and  rot — in  peace. 


164 


NOTES  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHY 


PP-  20-33]  NOTES 


NOTES 

I  Harold  Frederic,  "  The  New  Exodus,"  p.  71. 

*  Professor  Leo  Errara,  "  The  Russian  Jews,"  p.  25. 

"Harold  Frederic,  1.  c.,  p.  71. 

4  Errara,  1.  c.,  p.  160;  Arnold  White,  "The  Modern  Jew,"  p.  26. 

6  Harold  Frederic,  1.  c.,  p.  73. 

'Errara,  1.  c.,  p.  161. 

T  Ibid.;  see  ch.  iii. 

8  Ibid.,  p.  175. 

8  Harold  Frederic,  1.  c.,  p.  85. 

10  Ibid.,  p.  84. 

II  Errara,  1.  c.,  p.  75. 

13  Harold   Frederic,   1.   c.,    p.   80.     Instances   of   this   kind    are 
frequently  met  with  in  Hebrew  fiction.     See  "  The  Dry  Bones," 
in  Gordon's  prose  sketches. 

"The  allegation  made  by  S.  L.  Citron  (see  Ha-Sifrut  weha- 
Hayyim,  Pardes,  i,  p.  479),  that  the  very  writers  capable  of 
writing  scientific  articles  in  German  purposely  wrote  poor  ones 
in  Hebrew,  in  order  to  prove  that  the  Hebrew  language  was 
unfit  as  a  medium  for  useful  and  essential  thought,  is  too  far- 
fetched. The  critic  forgets  that  the  Hebrew-reading  public  of 
that  time  was  altogether  different  from  the  German.  The  general 
Hebrew  reader  was  as  yet  unprepared  for  scientific  articles. 

14  See  J.  A.  Trivash,  Li-Kebod  ha-Haskalah,  in  Luah  Ahiasaf, 
viii,  pp.  229-33. 

"Dr.  S.  Bernfeld,  "Life  of  Rapoport,"  p.  23. 
18  Dr.  H.  Ehrenpreis,  Ha-Shiloah,  i,  pp.  494  ff. 

11  S.  Bernfeld,  1.  c.,  p.  14. 

MI.  H.  Weiss,  "The  Beginning  of  the  Russian  Haskalah 
Movement,"  in  Mi-Misrah  umi-Ma'arob,  i,  pp.  10-11. 

167 


NOTES  [pp.  36-49 

"On  the  life  of  Levinsohn,  see  Gottlober,  Ha-Asif,  i,  pp.  i-m 
(brochure),  and  I.  H.  Weiss,  1.  c.,  pp.  9-16. 

20  See   Dor    Dor   we-Dorshaw   in   S.   P.   Rabinowitz's   Keneset 
Yisrael,  i. 

21  J.  S.  Taviov,  Mibhar  ha-Sifrut,  ii,  p.  139;  and  S.  L.  Citron, 
in  Pardes,  i,  pp.  189-90. 

22  J.  S.  Taviov,  1.  c. 

13  S.  L.  Citron,  Pardes,  i,  pp.  189-93. 
"Ibid. 

25  Harold  Frederic,  "  The  New  Exodus,"  p.  19.  See  ch.  vi  for 
the  above  data. 

28  Errara,  "  The  Russian  Jews,"  p.  25. 

27  Dr.  P.  Yampolsky,  in  S.  P.  Rabinowitz's  Keneset  Yisrael,  i, 
p.  859. 

28  See  S.  L.  Citron,  Pardes,  pp.  180-81. 

29  See  "J.  L.   Gordon,"  by  I.  J.  Weissberg;   I.   L   Graber,   in 
Ozar  ha-Sifrut,  ii,  pp.  281-82,  and  Gordon's  Letters,  i,  no.  45. 

80  Gordon,  Letters,  i,  p.  82. 

31  Michael  Gordon  was  born  in  Wilna,  November  4,  1823. 
Educated  in  the  old-fashioned  way,  he  early  broke  away  from 
the  old  camp,  left  the  Talmud,  and  devoted  himself  to  the  cultural 
movement.  Not  a  man  of  education  in  the  secular  sense  of  the 
term,  he  was  a  fluent  writer  in  Hebrew,  and,  by  nature,  a  gifted 
poet.  His  poems  are  not  always  finished,  nor  is  there  true  lyric 
power  in  them.  Only  here  and  there  a  line  stands  out  bold  and 
strong,  and  now  and  then  one  meets  with  some  fine  poetic  descrip- 
tion. His  poetry  is  mostly  didactic.  A  collection  of  his  poems  ap- 
peared anonymously  in  1861,  and  a  second  edition  in  1889. 

Michael  Gordon  married  a  sister  of  Leon  Gordon  in  1842. 
His  wife  died  in  1848.  He  had  a  checkered  career.  Having  no 
regular  occupation,  he  tried  his  hand  at  selling  whiskey,  then  at 
petty  trading  and  teaching.  His  greatest  grief  was  that  one  of  his 
sons  embraced  Christianity  in  order  to  be  eligible  to  the  office  of 
district  physician  at  Chernigov.  Michael  Gordon  died  in  a 
hospital  at  Kiev,  December  24,  1890. 

82  Letters,  ii,  p.  340. 

168 


PP-  5i-7i]  NOTES 

'"  Ibid.,  i,  p.  102. 

M  Ibid.,  p.  105. 

*"  Ibid.,  p.  108. 

"  Dr.  S.  Bernfeld,  "  Life  of  Rapoport,"  p.  6. 

31  Letters,  i,   p.   148. 

^Binah  le-Toeh  Ruah,  Ha-Meliz,  nos.  30-41;  Letters,  i,  no.  88. 

"  Letters,  i,  p.  167. 

40  Poetical  Works,  iv,  Satire  ix. 

41  Ibid.,  Satire  x. 
"Kol  Kitbe,  i. 

43  Letters,  ii,  p.  438. 

"  Ibid.,  p.  439. 

45  Dr.  M.  Ehrenpreis,  Ha-Shiloah,  i,  p.  495. 

48  Letters,  i,  p.  190. 

4T  Mordecai  Cohen,  in  Keneset  Yisrael,  i,  p.  495. 

48  Letters,  i,  p.  183. 

48  Ibid.,  ii,  p.  159. 

80  See  Mordecai  Cohen,  Sikronot  Nishkahim,  in  Luah  Ahiasaf, 
1900-1901,  pp.  141-42. 

"Ibid.,  p.  144. 

62  The  Board,  in  which  Gordon  was  all-powerful,  elected 
Olschwang;  the  opposition  preferred  I.  S.  Landau. 

"According  to  Mordecai  Cohen  (Ha-Zeman,  i,  1903),  Gordon 
was  denounced  to  the  terrible  "  third  division "  by  a  wealthy 
Jewish  upstart,  whose  ambition  to  be  elected  a  member  of  the 
Board  of  the  Society  for  the  Spread  of  the  Haskalah  was  thwarted 
by  Gordon's  strenuous  objections.  This  man,  being  an  ignor- 
amus, Gordon  argued,  had  no  place  on  a  Board  composed  of 
the  flower  of  Russian  Jewish  intellect.  The  denunciation  fol- 
lowed, and  the  police  began  to  investigate.  The  servants  testified 
that  the  house  was  frequented  by  young  men  and  women.  The 
secret  police  found  thousands  of  letters  in  the  house,  which  looked 
suspicious  enough,  particularly  since  they  were  written  in  lan- 
guages which  the  officials  couldn't  read.  The  police  sent  Gordon 
into  exile  that  they  might  meantime  investigate  the  nature  of 
his  letters. 

169 


NOTES  [pp.  72-75 

"Letters,  no.  157.  Their  release  was  due  to  the  influence  of 
Countess  Ignatieff,  mother-in-law  of  General  Zurov,  the  Mayor 
of  St.  Petersburg.  Gordon's  wife  had  met  the  Countess  fre- 
quently at  the  house  of  Dr.  Martin  Hirsch,  a  famous  physician, 
and  a  great  admirer  of  Gordon.  Dr.  Hirsch  called  the  attention 
of  the  Countess  to  the  arrest  of  the  Gordons,  and  through  her 
intervention  they  were  restored  to  liberty.  General  Gurko  de- 
clared them  innocent  on  July  13.  See  M.  Cohen,  quoted  in  note 
53,  and  Sefer  Ha-Shanah,  iv,  pp.  235-38. 

65  Letters,  no.  158,  p.  262.  The  official  report  of  the  society 
with  reference  to  Gordon's  arrest  is  laconic  enough :  "  Owing  to 
the  untoward  accident  that  has  befallen  our  Secretary,  Dr.  A. 
Harkavy  agreed,  at  the  request  of  the  Board,  to  act  as  Secretary 
pro  tern."  (P.  153.) 

MZeeb  (Wolf)  Kaplan  (i826-May  18,  1887)  was  born  at 
Wilkomir,  and  was  a  pupil  of  the  famous  stylist  M.  A.  Giinzburg, 
who  recommended  him  very  highly  to  the  wealthy  Landau  of 
Riga,  in  whose  house  Kaplan  accepted  a  position  as  tutor.  Gor- 
don first  made  his  acquaintance  in  the  house  of  his  brother-in-law 
Michael  Gordon,  January  8,  1846,  and  the  friendship  thus  formed, 
which  continued  all  through  their  life,  was  still  further  cemented 
by  the  marriage  of  Gordon's  daughter  Minnie  to  Kaplan's  son 
Maxim.  Kaplan  resided  in  Riga,  where  he  conducted  a  highly 
successful  Hebrew  school.  He  was  an  active  communal  worker, 
and  through  his  efforts  Governor-General  Shuvaloff  abolished 
(1865)  the  odious  tax  on  Jews  for  permission  to  remain  over 
night  in  Riga.  Kaplan  was  an  ardent  Zionist,  a  fluent  writer 
in  Russian,  waging  war  against  anti-Semitism,  correspondent  of 
the  Allgemeine  Zeitung  des  Judenthums,  and  a  highly  gifted  poet 
in  Hebrew.  See  Keneset  Yisrael,  1887,  pp.  347-50;  R.  Brainin, 
in  Mi-Misrah  umi-Ma'arob,  iii,  p.  115;  Ha-Meliz,  1888,  pp. 
1736-37,  and  nos.  168,  182,  187;  M.  A.  Giinzburg,  Debir,  ii, 
114,  118,  120,  126;  and  Ha-Asif  (Necrology),  vol.  iv. 

"Letters,  no.  158. 

58  Ibid.,  i,  p.  265. 

w  Ibid.,  p.  269. 

170 


PP-  76-91]  NOTES 

80  The  account  of  the  relation  of  Gordon  to  Ha-Meliz  is  de- 
rived largely  from  R.  Brainin,  "  Leon  Gordon,"  in  Ha-Shiloah, 
i,  pp.  421-33.  See  also  his  Sikronot,  Cracow,  1899. 

"Letters,  ii,  p.  10  (to  Dolitzky). 

"Ibid.,   p.  466. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  162. 

M  Ibid.,  no.  392.  Comp.  also  Gordon's  articles,  Ezra  we-Ezra 
and  "  Our  Redemption,"  in  Ha-Meliz. 

"Brainin,  Ha-Shiloah,  i,  p.  426. 

"Alexander  Zederbaum  (1816-1893),  though  not  an  educated 
man,  and  not  a  forceful  Hebrew  writer,  played  an  important  part 
in  the  development  of  Hebrew  literature,  through  Ha-Meliz, 
which  he  founded.  A  tailor  in  Odessa,  he  worked  his  way  into 
the  field  of  journalism,  and  occupied  a  position  of  influence  in 
the  capital.  His  long  residence  in  St.  Petersburg  gained  him  the 
acquaintance  of  high  Government  officials,  and  he  utilized  his 
influence  with  them  in  behalf  of  those  who  appealed  to  him  for 
aid.  This  was  a  labor  of  love  with  him,  and  he  was  ever  ready 
to  give  his  personal  service.  His  great  passion,  however,  was 
the  Meliz:  he  loved  it  as  a  father  loves  his  only  child.  Being 
an  admirer  of  Gordon's  style,  and  realizing  that  his  co-operation 
would  redound  to  the  fame  of  the  Meliz,  he  humiliated  himself 
before  Gordon,  who  despised  him  for  his  uncouth  ways,  and, 
above  all,  for  his  tendency  toward  braggadocio  and  self-glorifi- 
cation. Gordon  wrote  a  satire  on  Zederbaum  in  a  pamphlet, 
Tefah  Megullah,  which  appeared  in  1885  under  the  name  of 
Joshua  ha-Levi  Mezah,  in  which  he  flayed  Zederbaum  unmerci- 
fully in  the  character  of  Ezbon  the  Cabbie  (Ha-Eglon).  Another 
satire  on  Zederbaum  was  his  Goren  ha-Otod  (Poetical  Works, 
yi»  P-  97)'  Zederbaum  knew  of  Gordon's  authorship  of  the 
above  pamphlet,  but  he  was  still  willing  to  put  up  with  Gordon 
for  the  sake  of  his  paper's  reputation.  See  R.  Brainin,  Sikronot, 
and  Gordon,  Letters,  ii,  p.  124. 

87  Letters,  i,  p.  167. 

88  M.  Cohen,  Ha-Shiloah,  i,  p.  191. 
"Letters,  ii,  p.  342. 

171 


NOTES  [pp.  93-101 

TOLuah  Ahiasaf,  viii,  pp.  138-39. 

n  Letters,  i,  p.  166. 

72  Ibid.,  p.  237. 

71  Ha-Shahar,  x,  9. 

74  Letters,  ii,  p.  4. 

"  Ibid.,  pp.  265-66. 

"Pardes,  iii,  pp.  228-51. 

71  Letters,  no.  3. 

78  Letters,  nos.  43,  46,  275,  529. 

"Letters,  no.  281. 

80  In  Letter  281  Gordon  says:    "You  mean  to  frighten  me  by 
stating  that  ....  [evidently  referring  to  Lilienblum]  is  writing 
a  criticism  of  my  works.     Well,  where  is  the  cause  for  alarm? 
Shall  we  shut  people's  mouths,  or  hide  ourselves  before  criticism? 
An  author  is  a  public  man,  and  must  expect  criticism."     Gordon 
was  piqued  at  Lilienblum  because  the  criticism  was  narrow  and 
unfair. 

81  Letters,  no.  336. 

82  J.  H.  Syrkin  was  a  communal  and  Zionistic  leader  of  Minsk, 
the  author  of  a  book  on  mineralogy  in  Hebrew    (Leipsic,   1869, 
with  a  preface  by  Dr.  J.  Fiirst).     See  Eisenstadt,  "Rabbis  and 
Scholars  of  Minsk,"  p.  37. 

83  The  ridiculous  extent  to  which  some  critics  will  go,  is  shown 
by   E.    Atlas    in    his    pamphlet    Mah    le-Fonim    u-mah    le-Ahor 
("Forwards  and  Backwards,"  Warsaw,  1898),  in  which,  among 
other  things,  he  accuses  Gordon  of  childishness,  because  he  speaks 
with  so  much  affection  and  emotion  of  his  little  grandson!     (Pp. 
12-13.) 

"Letters,  i,  p.  189. 

85 "  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  so-called  '  Shield  of  Da- 
vid' (&)  is  the  Druid's  foot,  which  witches  made  use  of  in 
antiquity.  It  is  first  mentioned  in  Hebrew  literature  in  '  Sefer 
Raziel.'  The  Druid's  foot,  however,  had  only  five  points,  and  I 
cannot  explain  how  it  was  changed  into  six"  (Letters,  ii,  p.  37). 

"Letters,  ii,  pp.  404-5. 

172 


pp.  108-124]  NOTES 

87  See  P.  Smolensk}-,  Ha-Shahar,  x,  pp.  458-60,  and  Ha-Shiloah, 
ii,  pp.  42-8. 

88  Ha-Shahar,  x,  pp.  42-8. 
""Sotah,  i3b. 

90  Lilienblum  is  indignant  at  Gordon  for  allowing  Zedekiah 
to  condemn  Jeremiah,  and  he  tries  to  prove  that  Jeremiah's  polit- 
ical policy  was  more  expedient  than  the  king's,  and  that  Zedekiah 
was  a  changeling  and  a  coward.  He  ends  his  criticism  by  saying 
that  while  one  has  a  right  to  write  anything  he  pleases,  he  has 
no  right  to  publish  everything  he  writes.  (Meliz  Ehad  mini 
Elef,  pp.  16-21.)  Carried  away  by  his  indignation,  Lilienblum 
forgets  that  he  is  criticising,  not  a  history,  but  a  poem  meant  to 
convey  Zedekiah's  feelings — and  Zedekiah  could  not  possibly  have 
agreed  with  Lilienblum. 

81  The    translation    of    these    lines    is    a    futile    effort    on    my 
part  to  give  an  idea  of  the  poem,  the  full  power  of  which  can 
be  felt  only  in  the  original.    I  recall  having  seen  an  English  trans- 
lation  of   this   poem,   but   I   recollect   neither   the   name   of   the 
translator  nor  that  of  the  publication  in  which  it  appeared. 

82  Poems,  iii,  p.  178. 

93  "  Jewish  Wars,"  II,  vi,  3  ;  vii,  3  ;  xi,  5. 

94  Lilienblum,  1.  c.,  pp.  22-6. 

95 "  Since  I  began  to  understand  a  book,  I  have  not  been  able 
to  discover  one  among  living  poets  greater  than  he  [Lebensohn] 
....  and,  therefore,  I  have  endeavored  to  imitate  him."  Letters, 
no.  3. 

88  Smolensky,  Ha-Shahar,  x,  p.  400. 

97  In  a  letter  written  in  1879,  Gordon  says:  "This  poem  is 
far  superior  to  its  predecessors;  it  is  the  best  poem  I  have  written 
thus  far"  (Letters,  i,  p.  202). 

88  The  prototype  of  Vofsi  ha-Kuzari  is  supposed  to  be  Joseph 
Zechariah  (Stern),  Rabbi  of  Shavly,  Government  of  Kovno.  If 
this  be  so,  Gordon  did  this  great  Talmudist  a  lasting  injustice. 
Rabbi  Stern,  as  far  as  I  could  learn  from  men  who  knew  him 
well,  was  always  inclined  to  interpret  Rabbinical  laws  in  a  liberal 
spirit.  Moreover,  he  always  refused,  on  principle,  to  issue  bills 

173 


NOTES  [pp.  125-161 

of  divorce,  fearing  to  take  the  responsibility  on  himself;  and  his 
attitude  toward  the  question  of  divorce  was  so  well  known  that 
all  such  cases  had  to  be  referred  to  Rabbis  of  other  cities.  Hence, 
the  incident  narrated  in  the  poem  cannot  truthfully  be  ascribed 
to  him,  and  Gordon's  characterization  of  him  is  entirely  un- 
warranted. 

99  A  reference  to  Gen.  xxiv.  57. 

100  Referring  to  Gittin,  59". 

101  Lilienblum,    who   persists   in    interpreting    Gordon    literally, 
remarks  on  the  line,  "  The  City's  fall  we  constantly  recall,"  "  in 
my  opinion  one  who  writes  such  a  line  is  not  a  national  poet" 
(1.   c.,    p.   27).     The   critic   evidently   does    not   understand   the 
difference  between  an  exclamation  of  grief,  and  a  positive  state- 
ment of  indifference,  or  he  would  have  felt  with  the  poet. 

102  Mr.  Brainin  criticises  this  poem  for  its  lack  of  psychologic 
description.     He  says   (Ha-Shiloah,  i,  pp.  333-34),  "We  do  not 
know  the  woman;  we  see  only  her  shadow  ....  She  does  not 
say  a  word  throughout  the  entire  poem.     What  are  her  feelings? 
Gordon  is  silent  about  them."    This  is  unjust.    The  poem  is  not 
intended  as  a  psychologic  study  in  the  first  place.    The  woman, 
as  described  by  the  poet,  is  overwhelmed  with  grief — and  a  person 
in   such   a   state   of   mind   is   not   given   to   much   talking.     Mr. 
Brainin  is  also  unfair  in  saying  that  the  poem  was  written  only 
for  the  sake  of  the  sarcasm  against  the  Rabbi.     Gordon  has   a 
higher  object,  which  is  embodied  in  the  line:  nfH¥  /Stf  *lp3  pn 
THin    (Poems,  iv,  p.  47). 

103  The  Jewish  Consistories,  during  the  reign  of  Nicholas  I.,  and 
the  early  days  of  Alexander  II.,  had  police  power  given  to  them 
within  their  jurisdiction. 

104  Comp.  Gen.  xxi.  i. 

105  Ha-Shiloah,  i,  p.  339. 
108  Letters,  i,  p.  210. 

10T  Ha-Shiloah,  i,  pp.  336-71. 

108  Ha-Shahar,  x,  p.  462. 

109  Poems,  iv,  pp.  1-4. 
""Letters,  i,  p.  23. 

111  Allgemeine  Zeitung  des  Judenthums,  1892,  xliii,  p.  506. 
174 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

(a)    GORDON'S   WORKS: 
KOL  SHIRE,  4  volumes,  1884. 
KOL  SHIRE,  zd  ed.,  6  volumes,  1898. 
OLAM  KE-MINHAGO, 
KOL  KITBE,  vol.  i,  1889. 
SIHAT  HOLIN   (Yiddish  Poems),  1885. 
SIHAT  HOLIN,  2d  ed.,  1889. 
IGGEROT,  2  volumes,  1894. 
NUMEROUS  ARTICLES  in  Hebrew  and  Russian. 

(b)  GORDONIANA: 
ATLAS,  E.,   Mah   le-Fonim  u-mah   le-Ahor,   Warsaw,   1898,   pp. 

5-15;  Ha-Yekeb,  1894,  nos.  1-6. 
BEN-GUTMANN,  "  Gordon  as  a  Fabulist,"  in  Ha-Shiloah,  xiii,  pp. 

244-251. 
BRAININ,  R.,  Zikronot,  Cracow,  1899. 

J.  L.  Gordon,  Ha-Shiloah,  vol.  i. 

Soferim  u-Sefarim,  Ha-Zofeh,  nos.  148-51. 

Hayye  Mapou,  29,  76,  99,  123. 

Perez  Smolensky,  Chapters  16  and  21. 

CHASHKES,  M.,  Anhot  Leb  Dawoi,  Cracow,  1888,  pp.  67-68. 
COHEN,  MORDECAI,  Ha-Zeman,  1903,  no.  i. 

Zikronot  Nishkahim,  in  Luah  Ahiasaf,  viii. 

Ha-Shiloah,  i,  pp.  191  ff. 

Keneset  Yisrael,  i,  p.  495. 

Sefer  ha-Shanah,  iv,  pp.  235-8. 
CORALNIK,  A.,  Die  Welt,  Oct.  17,  1902. 
DEINARO,  E.,  Massai  be-Europa,  p.  120. 
FRIEDBERG,  A.  S.,  Sefer  ha-Zikronot,  i,  Letters,  no.  18. 

Zikronotai,  in  Sefer  ha-Shanah,  i,  pp.  233-53. 

175 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

FRISHMAN,  DAVID,  in  Ha-Asif,  1885. 

GRABER,  I.  I.,  Ozar  ha-Sifrut,  ii,  pp.  181-2. 

GUNZBURG,  BARON  DAVID,  Ha-Asif,  vi,  pp.  103-6.     See  also  his- 
tory of  the  Mefize  Haskalah,  in  the  same  volume. 

KARPELES,  GUSTAV,  Allgemeine  Zeitung  des  Judenthums,  no.  43, 
1892. 

KLAUSNER,  DR.  JOSEPH,  Zion  li-Meshorer,  2d  ed.,  1894. 
Shire  Ahabah,  in  Ha-Eshkol,  i,  pp.  54-71. 

KLEIN   (DR.),  in  L'Unwers  Israelite,  1895-96,  p.  389. 

LILIENBLUM,  M.  L.,  Meliz  Ehad  mini  Elef. 

Luah  Ahiasaf,  1898,  pp.  143-9  (Sheyarim). 

LUZZATTO,  S.  D.,  in  Ha-Maggid,  no.  39. 

M.  B.,   Contes  Russes,  in  L'Univers  Israelite,  1895-96,  pp.  278- 
282;  315-318;  350-353- 

MALACHOWSKY,  H.,  Ketabim  be-Sefer,  Philadelphia,  1902,  Letters 
nos.  3  and  4. 

RABNITZKY,  I.  H.,  in  Pardes,  iii,  pp.  228-51. 

SILBERBUSH,  D.  L,  in  Ha-Am,  i,  nos.  3-4. 

SLOUSCHZ,   NAHUM,  La  renaissance  de  la  litterature  hebraique, 
pp.  138-40. 

SLUTZKY,  A.  J.,  Luah  Ahiasaf,  i,  pp.  258-83. 

SMOLENSKY,  P.,  We-zot  Yehudah,  in  Ha-Shahar,  x. 

SPECTOR,  M.,  Jiidisches  Volksblatt,  1886,  no.  u. 

STEINSCHNEIDER,  H.  N.,  in  Ha-Meliz,  nos.  214,  218,  1902. 

WEISSBERG,  I.  J.,  "  J.  L.  Gordon." 

WIENER,  LEO,  "  History  of  Yiddish  Literature,"  s.  v. 

HA-ASIF,  vi,  155-8. 

HA-ZEFIRAH,  1896,  nos.  27-37. 


170 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Acosta,  U.,  136. 

Alexander  1.,  character  of,  19;  ap- 
peals to  Jews  for  help  against 
Napoleon,  19;  promises  Jew- 
ish emancipation,  20;  attempts 
Jewish  colonization,  20;  abol- 
ishes most  Jewish  Consistories, 
20;  failure  of  his  colonization 
scheme,  20-21,  25,  107. 

Alexander  II.,  Jewish  merchants 
privileged  by,  41  ff. ;  gives  in- 
centive to  education,  43,  72, 
78,  84. 

Alexander  III.,  character  of,  78. 

Bakst,  I.  M.,  3.8. 

Baruch,  of  Sklow,  33. 

Behak,  J.,  38. 

Ben-Jacob,  I.,  38. 

Bensew,  T.  L.,  33,  38. 

Bikkure  ha-Ittim,  31,  33,   105. 

Brafman,  J.,  68. 

Brainin,  R.,  79,  84,  87,  139,  142. 

Bresselau,  M.,  30. 

Byron's  Hebrew  Melodies,  145. 

Cohen,  Mordecai,  93,  151. 
Cohen,  Raphael,  31. 
Cohen,  Solomon,  31. 
Consistories,    Jewish,    20,    28,    29, 
133  «. 

Diskin,  J.,  80. 

Dolitzky,  M.  M.,  94,  157. 

Education,  TatmudSc,  27  ff. ;  'in 
opposition  to  secular,  27;  en- 
couraged by  Alexander  II.,  43. 

Eichenbaum.  J.,  38,   106. 

Elisha  ben  Abuya,  136. 

Emanuel  the  Roman,  104. 

Errara,  Leo,  25,  26,  42  (note),  43. 

Erter,  I.,  32,  136. 

Euchel,  I.  A.,  30. 

Frederic,    Harold,    quoted,    22  ff., 

27,  42  (note),  43. 
Friedlaender,  D.,  30. 
Friedrichsfeld,  D.,  30. 


Frishman,  D.,  68,  91,  160. 
Fuenn,  S.  J.,  34,  36  ff.,  47. 

Goldenberg,  S.  L.,  33. 

Golos,  68. 

Gordon,  Asher,  48. 

Gordon,  Leon,  youth  of,  48;  in- 
fluenced_  by  M.  Gordon,  49; 
teaches  in  Government  schools, 
50;  publishes  first  poem,  52; 
pleads  for  reform  in  education, 
S3-54;  attitude  towards  the 
Rabbis,  55  ff. ;  his  philosophy 
of  Judaism,  60  ff.;  affiliates 
with  Ha-Shahar,  65;  his  double 
policy,  67;  polemic  with  Braf- 
man and  Golos,  68;  elected 
Secretary  of  the  Jewish  Com- 
munity of  St.  Petersburg,  68; 
his  influence  on  the  Society 
for  the  Spread  of  the  Has- 
kalah,  69  ft. ;  his  unpopularity, 
71;  denounced  as  a  Nihilist, 
71  ff.;  twenty-fifth  anniversary 
of  the  publication  of  his  first 
poem,  75 ;  becomes  editor  of 
Ha-Mcliz,  76  ff.;  his  editorial 
policy,  77-78;  his  attitude  to- 
wards Zionism,  79  ff. ;  char- 
acter of  his  "  leaders,"  82-83; 
as  literary  dictator,  84;  his 
relations  with  Zederbaum,  85, 
91,  96;  character  of,  86-102; 
contrasted  with  Smolensky,  92- 
95;  his  devotion  to  his  grand- 
son, 98,  99;  minor  works  of, 
103;  early  poems  of,  no; 
influenced  by  the  Lebensohns, 
112,  114;  second  Davidic  poem, 
112;  third  Davidic  poem,  114; 
other  Biblical  poems,  115-117; 
historical  poems,  117-121; 
"  Epics  of  the  Present,"  122- 
142;  lyric  poems,  144-161; 
death  of,  157;  Karpeles"  tribute 
to,  161-163. 

Gordon.  Michael,  46  (note),  49, 
153  (note). 


179 


INDEX 


Guilds,  nature  of   Merchants',  41- 

42  (note). 

Gunzburg,  M.  A.,  34,  37,  38. 
Giinzburg,   Baron   Horace,   67,   74. 

Halevi,  Tudah,  104,  106. 

Harizi,  Judah,  104. 

Harkavy,  E.,  69. 

Haskalah,   nature  of,    i6ff. ;  origin 

of,  29  ff. ;  pioneers  of,  34  ff. 
Hasidim,  15,  28,  45. 
llayyim,  of  Volozin,  48. 
"Hidden  Ones,"  134-135  (note). 
Hornstein,  S.  D.,  85. 

Ibn  Gabirol,  104,  106. 

Jabez,  W.,  39  (note). 
Jeiteles,  J.  L.,  32. 
Josephus,  121. 
Jost,  I.  M.,  155  (note). 

Kaplan,  Max,  73,  99. 

Kaplan,  Zeeb    (Wolf),   73,   74,   93, 

97,  98,  99,  159- 
Karaites,  26. 
Karmel,  36,  46,  47,  52. 
Karpeles,  G.,  161,   162. 
Katzenellenbogen,  H.,  38. 
Klaczko,  L.  R.,  38. 
Klausner,  J.,  92  (note). 
Kerem  Hemed,  33. 
Krochmal,  N.,  32. 

Landau,  E.,  31. 
Landau,  M.,  33. 
Lebensohn,  A.  B.,  34,  37  ff.,  106  ff., 

114,  122,  136. 
Lebensohn,   M.   J.,    108,    112,    113, 

158. 

Lerner,  H.  H.,  38. 
Levanda,   L.,  82. 
Leyinsohn,  I.  B.,  34  ff.,  136. 
Lilienblum,  M.   L.,  55,  79,  80,  81, 

96,   121,    151,    153    (note),   160. 
Lipptnan,  Gordon's  teacher,  48. 
Loewe,  Dr.  L.,  35. 
Lomonossoff,   M.,   139. 
Luzzatto,  M.  H.,  104. 
Luzzatto,  S.  D.,  1 06. 

Ha-MaggJd,  46,  47,  121,  153  (note). 
Maimonides,  59,  60. 
Mane,  M.  Z.,  13. 
Mapu,  A.,  38. 

Meassef,  30,  31,  32,  33,  36,  105. 
Mehz,   47,   52,  62,   63,   64,   70,   71, 
?6,  77,  79,  91,  97. 


Mendelssohn,  M.,  16,  30,  38,  59. 
Mohilev,  S.,  74. 
Montefiore,  M.,  35,  37,  81. 

Nekrassoff,  N.,  160. 

Nicholas  I.,  attempts  Jewish  con- 
version, 22,  27;  military  con- 
scription under,  22;  establishes 
military  colonies,  22-23;  ab- 
duction of  Jewish  children 
under,  23,  29;  colonization 
scheme  of,  24;  failure  of 
scheme  of,  25;  diminishes  Pale 
of  Settlement,  25;  expulsion 
from  cities  under,  26;  Jewish 
education  encouraged  by,  26. 

Orshansky,   E.,  43  ff. 

Pines,  M.,  121. 
Pirhe  Zion,  36. 
Plungian,  M.,  38. 
Poliakoff  family,  the,  74. 
Politzinetzky,  J.  H.,  38. 

Rabinowitz,  S.  P.,  33,  39  (note). 
Rabnitzky,  I.  H.,  85,  96. 
Rapoport,  S.  J.,  32,  33. 
Rosenthal,  Leon,  69. 

Saadia,  59. 

Salkind,  S.,  38. 

Satanow,  I.,  30,  33. 

Scherschewski,  H.,  38. 

Shahar,  literary  character  of,  65; 
influence  of,  65;  Gordon's 
contributions  to,  65  ff.,  70,  90, 
93,  94- 

Shatzkes,  M.  A.,  136. 

Shulman,  Kalman,  38. 

Silberman,  E.,  founder  of  Ha- 
Maggid,  46. 

Slonimski,  H.  S.,  34,  37,  47. 

Smolensky,  P.,  Gordon's  estimate 
of,  65 ;  preaches  nationalism, 
67,  79,  80;  Gordon's  relation 
to,  93  ff. ;  Gordon's  bitterness 
against,  94;  Gordon's  criticism 
of,  95;  Gordon's  elegy  on,  95; 
tribute  to  Gordon  by,  109  ff., 
143- 

Society  for  the  Spread  of  the  Has- 
kalah, aims  of,  68;  Gordon's 
influence  on,  69;  publishes 
Gordon's  poetical  works,  90. 

Spinoza,   B.,   136. 

Steinschneider,  M.,  154  (note). 

Stern,  J.  Z.,  55. 


180 


INDEX 


Suchostaver,  38. 
Syrkin,  J.,  97. 

Voskhod,     Gordon's 
to  the, 


contributions 


the,  74. 

Weissberg,  I.  J.,  89,  91. 
Werbel,  E.  M.,  106. 
Wessely,  N.  H.,  30,  105. 
Wilna,  Elijah,  33,  35,  48. 
Wolfssohn,  A.,  30. 
Wolfssohn,    M.    D.    (pseud.),    55 ; 
see  Stern,  J.  Z. 


Yeshibot,  the,  oppose  the  Haska- 
lah,  45,  62  ft". 

Zacuto,  M.,  104. 

Zederbaum,  A.,  begins  publication 
of  Ha-Meliz,  47;  editorial  pol- 
icy of,  76  ff.,  91 ;  Gordon's 
relation  to,  96  ff. 

Zephirah,  47,  62,  63,  85. 

Zunz,  L.,  36,  155  (note). 

Zweifel,  E.,  38. 


BALTIMORR,  MD.,  U.  8.  A. 


131 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

305  De  Neve  Drive  -  Parking  Lot  17  •  Box  951388 

LOS  ANGELES,  CALIFORNIA  90095-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library  from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


•fl 


A     000742247     o 


